


Hitman

by tabbycat1404



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Drug Dealing, F/F, Fluff, Gun Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:00:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 12
Words: 39,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22954474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tabbycat1404/pseuds/tabbycat1404
Summary: Flair Industries is the leading drug business in Massachusetts and has been for 30 years since Ric Flair created it but now Charlotte Flair is barely holding it together as she dates a Detective Becky Lynch and rivals with Sasha Banks who happens to be growing in popularity every day. Yet, that isn't even the worse of it because more problems start to arise as an immoral vigilante looks over the streets.
Relationships: Charlotte/Becky Lynch | Rebecca Knox, Sasha Banks/Bayley | Davina Rose
Comments: 13
Kudos: 49





	1. Introduction to Charlotte Flair

It was a gleeful morning in downtown Boston, the sun was rising above a skyline that filled an entire wall window. There were no angry drivers beeping their horns because they couldn’t deal with the stress of the day, which in turn meant everything was peaceful. It was so peaceful that you could hear the birds chirp to each other about their morning in a place that usually had a busy atmosphere. This type of morning was a rare gem to come across and when it did happen it usually meant a peaceful day and no troubles. The glistening sunlight came through Charlotte’s tall window wall that looked down among small tiny insignificant human beings. Fortunately, Charlotte was rich, which was why she had optioned for a two-floored penthouse in downtown Boston and right now she couldn’t regret it.

As well as a beautiful sunlight view that highlighted her natural face, she had an arm around her stomach, soothing and relaxing her. The arm came from none other than her precious girlfriend Becky and the sun only made her red hair stand out from her naked body. Charlotte turned her body to look at her girl’s features like she had done so many times before, she loved to draw images in her head to remember because she never wanted to forget about Becky. A cute nose crinkle from Becky had made Charlotte giggle and she loved how she would always adorably snore just before she would wake up. However, just like most days Charlotte’s peaceful ironic bliss had been interrupted by none other than the real world and their busy lives. It was only figuring out which phone was ringing first and most days it was Becky’s.

Sulking, Charlotte gently tapped her girlfriend, effectively stirring Becky awake, who grunted at the sound of a work phone and necessity to answer it. She tiredly mumbled in a strong Irish accent, only slightly clear to hear for Charlotte, “On’ day Charlie. I'm-ma make em’ do their own detective work,”

Charlotte only laughed but deflated at the feeling of her girlfriends arm gone and reaching for something else. She desired for the feeling once again but to no prevail. Yet, she had to admit she was still tired to do anything so only watched lying down and listened in as her girlfriend started a conversation with her petulant captain.

“What now, I’m tired,” 

“Yes I know that’s no way to talk to you,” Charlotte smirked at her girlfriend’s attitude and snuggled up to Becky, resting her head on her leg. Becky lightened up a bit and started to play with Charlotte’s hair, which she knew she always loved. It created a calming atmosphere in the room even if Becky had to talk about her serious job.

“Where was the murder?” The sudden question caught Charlotte’s attention and she started to listen in a bit more as Becky started to sound a bit concerned. It was starting to become a less average morning, there only ever tended to be a murder in Boston every month or so.

“Recovered on the shore, that’s a new one,” Charlotte started to feel an immediate panic and swallowed down the saliva in her throat but Becky’s hand made sure she did not show her inner turmoil. A lot of questions were circling in Charlotte’s head but she kept a calm composure knowing Becky would full on catch any slight problems in Charlotte’s turn of behaviour; you see Charlotte had to keep this persona, after all she loved Becky. Yet Charlotte’s life was more complicated than anyone could think. She was stuck carrying on a business that had problems but she wanted to succeed and keep her girlfriend on top of it.

Becky continued, “You think it has something to do with a drug organisation, well I’d have to check it out,” Becky sighed and kissed her girlfriends forehead, who almost broke a sweat at Becky’s conversation but remained loving and affectionate, leaving their safe bed, “I’ll go down to the port be about half an hour,” 

Becky hung up her phone and Charlotte audibly grunted at the empty space in her bed playing the perfect girlfriend, which didn’t go unnoticed by Becky as she quickly changed into her clothes that had been scattered around the room from last night.

“Do you have to go? We could just have sex again,” Charlotte begged for Becky to stay as she carried on getting dressed, showing no sign of getting back into bed. Charlotte knew that Becky had to go and Charlotte had to get back to business soon but it didn’t make it any easier to say bye to her girlfriend as they carried on their usual day.

Plus, Charlotte would have to figure out what had transpired within the Boston downtown area, her eyes needed to be everywhere. Becky only looked at her sadly and replied, “As much as I’d love that love, this case could be a major breakthrough. The captain was pretty insistent that she thought this case was serious and nothing like this ever really happens and so therefore my detective work is needed,”

Swiftly, Becky grabbed her badge and lastly put her jacket on signalling she was ready to go as much as she looked like shit but hey she had that after sex glow that her co-workers could envy. Finally, she walked over to Charlotte, who looked like a persistent child and placed a passionate kiss on her lips that Becky did not want to let go of the release on, as kisses like this showed how much they loved each other. Six months of being with Charlotte, Becky didn’t ever want to leave her but the need for air in each other’s lungs was enough to separate the two. Becky went to leave the room shouting a quick, “Love ya,” to which Charlotte quickly shouted back, “Love you.”

Noting that Becky had gone and had left the building out of sight and earshot, Charlotte quickly jumped from her bed and rushed to place any sort of clothing on her as she needed to make an important phone call. Becky’s phone call had switched red lights off in her mind and the minute a drug organisation had been mentioned, this had become Charlotte’s top priority amongst many other problems. You see Charlotte didn’t run an average business, she had the priority to carry on a 30-year old drug business founded by her father and manufactured in Boston. 

The pressure was tough, sure her siblings helped but Charlotte had observed the cracks in her business that needed to be sorted out to remain the top dog in Boston. She only prayed to God that the murder had nothing to do with her organisation, she couldn’t deal with the police investigating her business again after last time. She’d let a damn rat into her business and her identity had almost been exposed and members trust lost.

Of course many people figured Charlotte to be the leader of the business as she was the daughter of the notorious Ric Flair but there was no evidence to support their claim and she happened to have a Masters in Chemistry, where she helped with cancer research. Public image meant everything.

Charlotte pressed to call her brother, knowing he was the best bet to find out what could be going on with the murder and he could relieve her growing anxieties, “David what the fuck is going on with the washed up body on the shore and why the fuck do the cops believe that it has something to with a drug organisation, I swear it better not be fucking Sasha Banks…”

“Charlotte what the fuck are you on about,” Her brother was quick to interrupt as Charlotte went on a tangent. He hadn’t heard about any murder and he had connections everywhere, including Sasha’s business. Sometimes he had little faith in Charlotte’s leadership but he knew there was no way he could take over a business that had so many problems right now. Charlotte happened to be the best option, she could at least deal with the pressure.

David continued on, “I haven’t heard about any murder and Sasha isn’t stupid enough to leave a body lying around. If it’s drug related then it could just be some random drug dealer we sell off to that got into a scruff with some other drug dealer, we know there’s been tension on the streets lately with Sasha’s growing popularity. If it is then there is no way that, that sort of thing could trace back to us except from the cops thinking they know something,”

“Are you sure David because Becky got a phone call from her captain and it sounded very important,”

“Look Charlotte, I will call each of our members and importers, do an extra sweep for a rat but I’m pretty sure it’s nothing to do with us. Besides you really shouldn’t be thinking about that when you have a very important meeting tonight with speak of the devil, Sasha Banks and for the last time you really shouldn’t carry on that relationship with Becky Lynch,” Charlotte sighed her brother sounded very certain and he was right, tonight she had an important meeting but once again he had no right to speak about the woman she was dating.

“You can keep saying that it’s a problem for me to be with Becky but I promise you that once this business is back on track, Becky will never find out,” Charlotte sounded so sure of herself that all David could do was nod and agree, he couldn’t be bothered with starting an argument with her right now. He couldn’t understand how Charlotte had so many perfections but yet that many flaws.


	2. Introduction to Becky Lynch

Sighing, Becky walked down the stairs of the penthouse, all the way down to the private car park used for only residents. It was no secret that her girlfriend loved to live like a queen but all it meant for Becky was that she had to walk all the way up the stairs just to have sex with her. Or have cuddles but that she wouldn’t admit that because Charlotte would definitely tease her. She was supposed to be ‘the man’ in the relationship.

Of course Charlotte insisted that she used the lift but the one thing she swore she would never do was use a goddamn lift, it was her biggest fear. One look on the inside and it felt like the entire space was closing in on her. Becky told herself that she feared nothing else at all considering her job was putting herself in danger everyday for people she didn’t know but she wouldn’t have it any other way. Becky knew how important it was to have compassion for other people, otherwise she probably wouldn't be in this job.

Becky quickly rummaged through her Jean pockets to find her car key and searched for her car in amidst of rich, posh sports cars. When she had first met Charlotte, Becky had only a cheap Ford Fiesta made to get her from A to B but yet parking it in this car park made her feel out of place. She'd even had a snide look from some snob bitch. Becky could only imagine how she got her car. If she had sunglasses right now, the shades would be on.

However, once she was promoted to detective, five months ago; just after she met Charlotte, her Irish luck turned around and she was given an unmarked company vehicle that she could never afford on her own. Standing in all its glory was her burgundy Mitsubishi Outlander. It was her baby. She always had a smirk on her face as she walked closer to it, no sports car could top its glory. To her, it was a statement, she had worked so hard to get to the point that she was in right now and didn't plan on letting it go.

Her life was perfect. She had Charlotte. Her baby. A job that helped others. The only bad thing was the amount of hours and stress she put into her work but she didn't care. At eighteen she would have never dreamed of this. It brought a smile to her face thinking about it all.

Becky entered her vehicle and started the engine, she had only a short journey considering the crime scene was at the docks and she was in the richest place in Boston. Oddly, the early traffic morning was pretty peaceful and she didn't have to stress at any drivers for taking their sweet time. Maybe this day was gonna be alright after all, she touched wood then.

Swiftly, Becky parked her car near the crime scene and walked towards the barrier. Like usual, there were civilians all standing round trying to take a look at what could have happened to gain so much police attention but Becky didn't pay any attention to them. They made her job a nuisance but she couldn't blame them for being curious, it was her job after all. Becky had worked hard so that she didn’t have to be the officer that stood around and watched anymore.

She flashed her badge to the guarding officer, who gave her a polite smile. She knew the officer was a rookie so she didn't bother him too much, she was more interested in getting a look at this body. Her Captain was insistent this was drug related and although her Captain was a pain in Becky’s head she was also smart. She'd take her word for it.

"Bro you've got that after sex-glow, you at Charlotte's again," Coming from her left was her best friend and partner in crime both figuratively and literally. Matt Riddle. He wasn't dressed in proper work attire, he had an Hawaii shirt, shorts and sandals on. Anyone would think he was ready to go on vacation but it just happened to be his normal outfit.

Her Captain had tried but failed many times for him to at least put a proper pair of jeans on but he tried for a day and came back the next day with shorts on. The Captain was just about ready to fire him but she knew he was too valuable to fire over something petty like what he wore. His drug tests even came back negative.

"What can I say, my girls good at sex," Becky laughed along with Riddle enjoying the light heartened humour but knowing that they had to get back to work at some point, "So what have we got then,"

"Bro, the guy's body washed up this morning and had a bullet straight through his head with complete accuracy. Whoever did it had no mercy at all, they wanted him dead. What's interesting was that we found drugs on him of course but he had a marking on his hip. We ran some recognition and that same mark was found on Hugo De Camprio when he was found dead,"

The cogs started to turn in Becky's head. Hugo was an illegal immigrant, who had died of a heart attack in his home four months ago. Becky had wanted to investigate further into his death, considering the heart attack was suspicious and out of nowhere but there wasn't enough evidence to investigate further. He had a long-term case of arrhythmia that had it written off as a tragic loss. The mark on him was nothing more than a tattoo but right now it was opening up to complete new possibilities. The same marks never meant anything good.

"Well I said we should have looked further into Hugo's death but no one listened to me. Guess I'll go talk to Gulak see what the medical reports are indicating, you go and find the Captain see what she's thinking," Becky gave Matt a quick ritual first pump and they went on their separate ways. 

Walking closer to the body was always a weird experience, it was different for everybody. Becky had seen at least a hundred dead bodies in her career and yet every time she looked at a new one she would get a different feeling. Matt called her psychic but Becky didn’t believe in that shit. Right now she was feeling impulsive, she was already finding these clues and she wanted to figure out the puzzle but she had to be careful. Making mistakes cost and trails would quickly cover themselves back up.

The first thing Becky noticed was the smell, there wasn’t any scent of rotting flesh, which meant that the man had been killed recently. Any rookie could figure that out though. Becky looked down and Matt hadn’t lied when he said that the man had been shot with complete accuracy. It distracted her from looking at any other features of the man. Once she started to really observe the body, Becky noticed that although the man was pale and bloated from being in the water he was in fit form. It looked as if he hadn’t even taken any of the drugs, his eyes weren’t bloodshot, his skin wasn’t dry, there was nothing on the man to prove he was anything but normal.

Becky crouched down and took a better look at the hole in the man’s head, the bullet size didn’t look like any special gun but it was hard to tell what length the shot had been taken at. It was a mystery to how this man could be involved with drugs. Gulak crouched down beside Becky, “Mystery isn’t it,”

“Was there any trace of drugs in his system?”

“Nope, clean. As far as I can tell the man looked like he was keeping himself fit, eating healthily. But that mark you see on his hip, it’s I would say an eight year old tattoo. From the tests I did the man was killed at most likely three in the morning. What’s odd is that the person who shot him killed him on the shore let his body float for a bit and then the waves brought him back to shore. Either that person wanted the man found or there extremely dumb,

“I don’t think that person is dumb. Considering it took one shot at approximately six metres away for them to kill him point clean and there’s absolutely no evidence to figure out the killer. They left everything squeaky clean, and were playing their game. Look though, they left the bullet in his head, like a puzzle piece, I took it out and the gun used was probably the cheapest gun you could buy, a Cobra Arms Freedom. 380. To use that gun with accuracy takes a tremendous amount of skill. I think this entire killing was a statement to other drug industries. I’m better than you,”

Becky focused hard and found that Gulak’s theory wasn’t a long shot but the information she was told was shockingly dangerous. There was a killer out on the streets who had that much skill to kill someone and make a statement. This was still all confusing though because the link to Hugo was weird. It was not a coincidence and like Gulak said they were playing a game whether they liked it or not. 

“We’ve definitely got a big case here Drew, I’m gonna go speak to the Captain see what she says. We're gonna need an identity on this man before we start going into any theories and just because he had drugs on him doesn’t mean it could be drug related. I mean we have no idea what the killer’s motive is yet but I aim to figure it out,”

Drew went back to work and Becky took a breather, she had to process a lot of information and she would need to go to her Captain to figure out a bit more. She loved that people would leave her undisturbed if she needed to figure out things, it meant that extra stress wasn’t placed onto her already full shoulders. Then things were disturbed.

Running up to her was an ambitious rookie officer that wanted to learn everything. Rhea Rhipley had a kind heart and soul but sometimes she couldn’t quite grasp the concept of boundaries even with so much potential. She was tough and she reminded Becky of her young self, she would do everything to help other people but not quite understand she wasn’t at the right level just yet. 

Becky put on a fake smile and looked at Rhea who had looked like she’d won the lottery, “What can I do for you Rhea? Should you even be at this crime scene,”

Rhea dulled down her face realising her mistake but quickly taking a note out her pocket and handing over to Becky, who looked obviously confused, “I was supposed to be at the station, I’m sorry but I had to give this to you. It’s a note,”

Becky rolled her eyes, “I realise I’m Sherlock but seriously don’t give me such a hard challenge. Rhea where did you get the note,”

“That’s the thing I don’t know,”

“You don’t know where you found the piece of paper,”

“No I mean I found it on your desk,”

“Why were you at my desk?”

“Unimportant question right now but just read it,”

Becky took the note and looked down at it. It was written in perfect handwriting and there was a message written on the page,  
Warehouse *19 Boulder Street  
22:00  
Bring your boys - Anonymous  
Becky had really jinxed herself when she said this was gonna be a good day and now she was getting love letters from anonymous people.

Rhea again looked like an excited child with sweets and Becky knew what she was thinking, “No you’re not helping Rhea. Not until you even have the right clearance,”

Rhea put on a sad face and started to beg clearly wanting to get in on the action, “Please Becky. I haven’t told the Captain and I’m bored with filing paperwork or attending mediocre crimes. I mean just last week I had to catch a guy because he’d stolen a toilet seat. I can help, I was a private investigator back in Australia, now look at me,”

“Rhea I get that you could be doing so much more but I got to my position because I was at the bottom of the barrel first. I don’t want you to get in trouble, I don’t want to get in trouble. I see so much potential in you but helping me with a note, isn’t going to help you. I appreciate you brought it to me though and I’m glad you didn’t tell the Captain. I’ll look into, I promise, especially if it was just lying around on my desk,”

Rhea looked defeated but accepted that Becky was right, she couldn’t just be doing something that wasn’t her job. Gloomily, she walked back to her police car and back to her work missing out on all the action to do with this case that had everyone up in a frenzy.

Finally, Becky worked herself up enough to go see the Captain who was currently standing with Matt just near the crime scene. The Captain took notice of Becky and excitedly shouted, “Becky! Becky! Come on walk a bit faster!”

“Yes Captain Phoenix,” Becky gave a quick, sarcastic, mock salute, which the Captain only rolled her eyes to. The Captain was used to her bashful attitude at work and knew that Becky wasn’t going to change so decided to give up on trying to correct her, it never worked any way. Becky was too proud to admit she was doing anything wrong in the first place.

Becky continued speaking, after slowly walking to the Captain obviously, “Well Captain what have you found out then and why are you so fixed on that the dead body had anything to do with a drug organisation, he had one mark,”

“Well back at the police station, we figured out the identity of the man, Grant Hearl and it turns out that the man has been prosecuted for drug dealing back in 2012 spent four years in prison and became an addict, was on the streets for two years. He had no money to afford the drugs or rehab yet an anonymous donor paid the entire funds and he has been clean for two years. So my question is what has he been doing for the past two years and where did he get the money,”

A light bulb clicked in Becky’s head, “Gulak said that the tattoo looked about eight years old and in just that year he was prosecuted for drug dealing. Now that sounds like a drug organisation. Captain we're gonna have to look into Hugo’s death and you know it,”

“That’s right Lynch, I’ll leave that to you, after all you wanted to investigate further and now we have a reason to,”


	3. Introduction to Sasha Banks

After David’s conversation with Charlotte, the first port of call he had to reach was none other than Sasha Banks. Not because he wanted to but because the meeting tonight had to be squeaky clean with no hostile intentions, everything that went down tonight had to be civil. Police could quickly become involved, after being on high alert from the port murder and the meeting was supposed to be a peace treaty of sorts. Enough to let gangs know they shouldn’t be fighting over drugs.

David wasn’t even sure if Sasha would answer the phone considering each other's distaste for one another. Plus, Sasha was prone to changing her phone number a lot at very random times, it was intended for her to be able to talk to one person, only once, after that business would cut ties unless she chose it to not; in which case she would have handed down the business to one of her employers to deal with.

It was a known fact that Sasha was extremely intelligent and very egotistical, so David - if he could get hold of her - would take her words with a pinch of salt. He didn’t know whether she could be hiding the truth and she was actually responsible for the murder, maybe Sasha had let a rat in. However, it seemed impossible for Sasha to even let a bad case of drugs in, so the likelihood she had a traitor in her industry was very, very slim.

Hesitantly, David typed the phone number into his burner phone and kept thinking to himself that Sasha was smart enough to not have a dead body lying around, he didn’t need to intervene or cause his family business more harm. Thankfully, David heard a ringtone on the other side of the phone and silently cheered to himself, he at least had the right number. Whether Sasha would answer the phone was a different matter, she was a criminal boss after all.

One ring, two rings, three rings, four rings, five rings... David was starting to sweat, his palms shaking, heartbeat racing, six rings, seven rings, “How do you have my number?” 

Hallelujah! David silently said in his head not so sure if it actually did come out of his mouth but he could at least breath again and let his heart rate rest to normal. Monotonically, David answered Sasha’s question, “Sasha, it’s David from Flair Industries,”

“What the fuck do you want, I’m coming to this stupid meeting and you shouldn’t have called me,” Sasha dismissed the man entirely, she didn’t like him but she hated his sister.

“I know but I was calling because the police found a dead body on the shore, near the port this morning and from sources some might suggest the body has to do with a drug organisation. I was checking to make sure it wasn’t you, a way to screw us up before the meeting even starts, so forgive me for being suspicious,”

Sasha laughed down the phone. It was unsettling for David considering he wasn’t expecting this type of reaction but Sasha mocked him down the phone, “You really think that I would be stupid enough to leave a dead body lying around, that stuff is never good for business. Whatever went down at the port has nothing to do with me but I expect we better be on high guard for a meeting tonight, don’t you think. Or are you just the dog of the family,”

David kept his cool and replied with a simple, curt, “Yes, we should be on high alert but the police don’t know anything about that warehouse,”

“Good, never call me again. I’m changing my number,” Sasha hung up almost immediately but David was quite satisfied Sasha had nothing to do with it.

For the glorious morning, Sasha had been on her daily jog, always at sunrise, that was refreshing to the mind to begin her day - to centre on what needed to be focused on in her business. Then she took a shower, ate her breakfast and by that time it would be seven in the morning. This was her normal daily routine that had established the discipline in her inner self to get things done when things needed to be. By seven, she was ready to tackle the impending emails and phone calls. Or even the dirty business.

What she hated was that this morning, her first phone call had been from David Flair. It ruined her mood and she was reminded that she did have a meeting tonight. She hated Flair Industries, they were all stuck up, rich, senseless pricks and once she took over Boston she’d shove it in that dimwits face. Yet interestingly, there had been a murder in Boston and that was quite unusual, she would make sure her ears were everywhere.

Sasha hated rats, she hated them so much that she would always check every crack in the walls and every hole in the floors to see where they were hiding. Rats had the potential to carry diseases and when the diseases spread it could become an epidemic. When people fall ill it affects her business and her dirty work. 

Sometimes she had to admit that the people beneath her had value and she couldn’t always get what she wanted, which meant that her eyes had to be on everything. Trust was both naturally and logically hard for Sasha to come by, everything was business. She trusted only her own apprentice. She’d known Faris for a long time, which was a year in her case, and honestly she believed that he was loyal, she made him.

Faris had met Sasha he was a nineteen year old teenager, homeless and starving out on the London streets. He had been pissed on, spat on and smelled like the trash coming from the River Thames but where else was he supposed to go. He had no money to get on a train and he couldn’t just walk closer to people’s homes. Police were looking for any excuse to prosecute the homeless because they found them a nuisance.

He wanted to believe that people were going to help him or that his family would take him back in but he had fucked up too much and the family that once cared about him, looked at him in disgust. The fact of the matter was that he deserved everything that was coming to him and he couldn’t just throw himself a pity party. However, Sasha found him when he was so close to death his bones stuck out through his skin. 

It saddened Sasha seeing a nineteen year old almost close to death and him willingly letting it happen. He could have seeked a homeless shelter but she knew that it was hard for the homeless to get any real support for a long time. Sasha had only been in London to attend a meeting with one of her “friends” but seeing the boy made her think, he could be useful. It was clear to her, he wasn’t on any drugs and worse nobody was coming to save him. The best thing she could do was talk to him.

One year ago… 

It was dark and past midnight, Sasha had just come back from her meeting. She had to admit walking around the London streets this late was a risk but she was only walking down to her hotel and she was in a busy area with many pubs filled with live energy. It would be stupid for someone to jump her here and she’d probably laugh in the face of someone that stupid. She wondered whether to go into one of the pubs and feel a bit of the British energy but she had to remind herself that she had a flight in the morning and her Empire couldn’t just run itself.

It was a lonely walk and the air she breathed smelt of pollution and the all familiar scent of drugs. Looking around it was easy to miss the small things like a light on in the window or a cat walking around the streets. Yet she could hear how loud the British were singing, “Wonderwall” forgetting about their daily troubles or what may be outside in the streets. Nothing struck her as out of the ordinary, in fact everything struck her as ordinary. She sighed, she only had five more minutes to walk and then she could lie down in her bed and forget about the business she had just dealt with.

Unexpectedly, a cry had caught her attention over the lively atmosphere, it was very faint but it was most definitely a cry. She turned her head to the source of the noise and to her surprise a boy lay on the bus bench, he looked no older than nineteen years old. Being cautious, Sasha turned her head looking for anything suspicious encase this was a set up but all she found was the local pub on the corner oblivious to the boy. He had only a waterproof coat on and his hair was overgrown to his shoulders but his face gave away his youth. Sasha looked for any signs of a withdrawal but couldn’t even find any of them. She was curious and also surprised she had paid any attention to the boy, she didn’t need to and her line of work didn’t really come with emotions.

Slowly, she walked to the boy and by instinct the boy jumped up wiping the tears away from his eyes as if he was trying to show no fear but Sasha saw right through him. He was frightened. Sasha quickly raised her hands up and answered the boy’s fears, “Hey, I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to know why you're out here,” it was subtle but the boy laughed as if he had heard the funniest joke in his life. The boy only replied, “You’re American?”

“Unfortunately. You’re homeless?” Sasha knew just by his laugh the boy was obviously not in a position to go somewhere else. The boy looked to his feet and only gave a slight nod, “Unfortunately.”

“How long have you been homeless for?” Sasha’s curiosity for the boy once again came back and she felt the need in her gut to find out more about him and why he was crying on a bench. The boy sat down and took a breath, “Long story and you probably won’t care,” 

Sasha moved towards the boy and sat next to him, there was a streetlight over them that let Sasha see the boy’s face more clearly. She saw a long scar on his cheek that looked like it had come from a knife and what was more prominent was that it hadn’t healed up properly because it hadn’t been stitched back up together. Sasha questioned, “Did you get that scar from being out on the streets?” 

The boy raised his head up a bit and looked at Sasha. The memory of getting that scar was a painful one and worse he had never gone to the hospital to have it bandaged up. Reluctantly he replied, “Yeah,” Sasha only nodded and looked back at him, “The world’s cruel,”

“What’s your name?” Sasha asked, seeing if the boy would start willingly start a conversation with him. The boy thought for a moment, this woman was probably just going to leave him in about five minutes and he would be left back to normal. Back to dying. 

Yet, the need for conversation was growing in him from the amount of time he had been lonely and left by himself. The only human interaction he had were people calling him names like “Junkie” and “Piece of shit”. Nobody cared about him and he was left to be the forgotten society. Fortunately for Sasha, the boy’s need to talk prevailed and he simply said, “Faris.”

“My name’s Sasha. So how long have you been homeless and before you say I don’t care, I do,”

Anxiously Faris answered, “About a year,”

“That’s quite a long time for someone your age,”

“I’m nineteen, technically an adult, authorities don’t care about me,”

“I find authorities quite annoying, get in the way of my business,”

“Oh yeah and what’s your business?”

Sasha found herself suddenly brought back to reality when she heard the question. She couldn’t just go around and say she owned a drug business but something about this boy was wanting her to tell the truth. He looked innocent and yet she could ruin his future by saying something like this, “If I told you, I might have to kill you,”

Faris was shocked by the answer but he wanted the answer. Why would Sasha come to him in the first place if she didn’t care? Faris pushed, “I wouldn’t tell anyone, I mean, who could I tell?”

“True, true,” Sasha took a breath, “But I wouldn’t want to ruin your future. My job is dangerous, emotionless but my reward is lots of money and personal gain,”

“Are you a hitman,” Sasha laughed and quickly relied with an abrupt, “No,”

Faris thought for a moment, a slight tear rolling down his face, “You know I don’t have a future, I don’t have anyone to turn to. I’m underweight and if I’m being honest with you, I’m probably going to die from either another knife attack or if I catch another illness out in this cold I’m done for. I can’t stay another day out in this life,”

Sasha emphasised with the boy, it was an odd feeling, she had no idea what it was like. For God sake, she’d killed people, back-stabbed people and yet this one boy was getting to her. The need to tell the truth was strong and so she did, “I own a multi-millionaire drug business back in America and I came to London to see if I could expand my business internationally,”

“You’re a millionaire and yet you're walking around London at night,” the two acquaintances laughed together and Sasha felt a need in her chest to protect Faris. She found trust hard, almost impossible and yet here she was laughing with a homeless boy who had touched her heart, “So that’s all you got from that,”

“I mean do you not have a driver or something,”

“No my driver is back in Boston, but this was only a one-day trip so I was saving people a hassle really,”

“If you say so,”

Sasha found herself wanting to talk to this boy for longer but she really had to go. She had one chance to change this boy’s fate and now was her chance, “Look Faris, I could change your life right now but you’d be pushed into a dangerous business and I know nothing about you. Do you have a passport?”

“I do but it’s at my parents' house,” Sasha looked shocked. Why was he homeless for this long if he had parents, “I know what you're about to say but they are both a pair of ignorant twats that would look at me in disgust and it’s all my fault. I was a bad teenager, I stole their money and I used it and they kicked me out. Trust me. I have no one, not even a sibling. I went back to my parents but they didn’t do anything and told me it wasn’t their responsibility to sort me out as if I was on some kind of drugs.”

Sasha felt a bit of anger flaring up but looked unbothered, “You get your passport, I’ll get everything sorted. Don’t worry, you won’t be an illegal immigrant - America cares to get rid of the most vulnerable, ethnically diverse people before thinking about a white boy. I can get you residency, all comes with the power,”

“I wonder if I’ll regret this decision,”

“Probably,”

Back in the present, Faris was sitting on the kitchen counter, eating an apple. As much as the boy made Sasha happy, he was also a pain to deal with. She used her hand to signal for him to get down and he did, which grew a smirk on Sasha’s face. He was obedient, which made him very useful when it came down to her trusting Faron to track down people when she needed him to. Faron had ‘street smarts’, which he had learnt from living on the streets.

He could deal with gangs and drug dealers much better than Sasha ever could and if someone did hurt Faris while he was doing her bidding then Sasha would hurt that person so much their face would be unrecognisable. The warning had been given to so many people and basically everyone knew not to cross Sasha Banks, she was ‘the boss’.

Right now Sasha had a job for Faris, “I need you to do something for me specially for today,”

“What’s going on?”

“This morning a body washed up on shore and the police suspect that the cause of it was a drug organisation so I want you to keep your eyes peeled. Specifically on detectives. They can’t be crashing in on our meeting tonight,”

Faris nodded his head, “Got it boss,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunately, next chapter won't be an introduction to Bayley because she isn't part of the story just yet. I promise when she is in she'll play a big role.


	4. Sanctuary

Going back to the police station, Becky was confused where to start in her investigation. Hugo died four months ago and was buried in the ground, which meant that medical coroners couldn’t investigate further into his body. His death certificate was signed and reason for death was cardiac arrest, there was nothing else in his body that seemed incriminating. Everything indicated a sudden cardiac arrest and consequently death.

Becky sat on her desk chair and looked around, everybody in the police station seemed to be on high alert per Captain Phoenix’s orders. She wanted them to work and investigate every part of this murder and Becky couldn’t blame her a murder happened and yeah it was tragic but a murder linked to a drug organisation was incriminating. It gave the police enough evidence for them to charge the organisations that put drugs on the streets as they knew many drug organisations but they were protected by the law, they hadn’t legally done anything wrong.

However, the high alert of officers had created another mystery for Becky. The note. How could something like that be put on her desk without an officer spotting it, unless it was some kind of prank. Yet it didn’t seem like a prank and Rhea was pretty sure about it. She would have to look in further or even go to the location but right now she had to investigate further into Hugo’s case and how it had linked up to Grant’s death.

A quick ping had sounded on Becky’s phone and she swiftly took it out her pocket seeing a text from her ‘Blonde weirdo’ aka Charlotte with a text message of:  
Gonna be out late probably won’t be back till midnight if u wanna go to my house but I could always come round yours ;)  
A quick second later: But u should get sleep x  
It made Becky smile that Charlotte cared about Becky’s well being but it did make her quite sad that she couldn’t go and rant to Charlotte at the end of the day.

Fixed, Becky logged onto her computer and searched up Hugo’s file. The first thing she noticed about the man was his smirk, he looked untouchable but she also took note that the mugshot had been taken in 1999 and he must have been still pretty young. When Becky had attended the crime scene Hugo had looked miserable but his eyes looked in pain, not a long-term pain but a short-term pain. It striked her as odd but the man must have been in the most pain he’d been in his life after his life flashed before his eyes.

Surprisingly, the man had only a short criminal file and had never been convicted at court unlike Grant. One click and the only crime she saw was from 1999 just like the mugshot picture had been from, on it labelled aggravated assault. Another click and the description of the crime had appeared up in front of Becky.

Date: 21/05/1999  
Officer in charge: Officer. Earl Hebner  
Crime: Aggravated assault on Rafael Mino (Injuries sustained - Broken Arm, Busted Lip and Black Eye, Broken Hip)  
Summary: I found Mr. De Camprio and Ric Flair…

Immediately Becky shot up at Ric’s name, it didn’t matter what else was in that file. Everybody knew who the notorious Ric was and everybody knew that up until last year, his death, his drug business was the best damn business in Massachusetts, which was why her dating Charlotte had not looked good on her when officers found out, her Captain even thought she was in some kind of conspiracy but last everybody knew Becky’s strong moral code and remained respectful to her. Charlotte had proved time and time again to the police she wanted nothing to do with her father’s business and worked in a chemistry lab helping cancer research. Becky had even had her doubts when she started dating her but all her worries had gone now, she completely trusted her.

However, in this particular case seeing Ric’s name was odd, Charlotte had denied ever knowing the man and Becky had taken her word for it. To help ease her confusion Becky dialled Charlotte’s number and put the phone to her ear, of course Charlotte picked up without hesitation, “Hey babe, what are ya doing?”

“Ah just getting ready for a meeting tonight, what do you think would look better, blue or black,”

“Anything would look good on ya babe, I can just picture it now. Anyway I was just calling cause that murder linked to Hugo’s case, do you remember from four months ago,”

Charlotte’s panic level had increased massively but hid it away from Becky. That certain name she did not want to hear again and now Becky was investigating him for what reason she had no idea but couldn’t just ask Becky, it could get her in trouble. Charlotte remained calm and answered, “Oh yeah babe,”

“Yeah well I was looking in his file and I saw a crime he committed back in 99 with your dad but you said you’d never heard of him,”  
“Becky my dad knew a lot of people that I didn’t know, when he came home he was a family man. I promise you I’ve never heard of Hugo,” Charlotte swallowed back the saliva in her throat almost thinking about cancelling her entire meeting but right now was definitely not the time. She just had to remain calm and everything would go away.

Becky found Charlotte’s behaviour odd but didn’t push any further, “Right well I see ya tomorrow babe. Love ya,”

Charlotte solemnly said down the phone, “I love you,” and the phone call ended. The amount of guilt she felt right now was tremendous but she couldn’t do anything, she had more important things to think of right now, particularly a blue haired one.

Becky hung up the phone and looked back onto Hugo’s file. He must have been connected to Ric’s business somehow, Ric even paid for the bail to get them both out. Instead she had to think about this logically without jumping onto any conclusions. So firstly, she clicked onto the victim’s file and she was quite shocked to find that the man’s file was overly filled with drug possession offences, his latest one being only two years ago. Becky laughed it off, of course Ric had beat up the man, he was connected to drugs, Ric could have been even supplying them. The man had drug offences going all the way back to his teenage years.

A quick look and Becky found the man’s address, a small apartment in Roxbury, the same neighbourhood where they had found Hugo dead. That wasn’t really odd though considering it was a cheap neighbourhood and a good place to hide for illegal immigrants, the only downside was the violence and you guessed it drugs. Becky grabbed her badge and headed out the door not bothering to grab Matt; she could do this quickly by herself.

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Half an hour later and Becky felt like the richest person in the neighbourhood considering having her car wasn’t exactly cheap but she had been in this neighbourhood before and most people were friendly but subject to negative stereotypes. Becky had never tried to make anyone feel any less considering she was an immigrant that had decided to make America her home. She was in the same boat like a lot of people and she didn’t have a lot of money when she had moved to Boston.

Walking into the apartment block it smelled of alcohol and the temperature was slightly above average, which didn’t do too well with Becky’s stomach but she carried on up the creaking stairs noting that there was no lift. Reaching the man’s door she found that there were cracks all over it as if it had been kicked in but she wasn’t here to question that. Becky raised her hand and confidently knocked on the door, her badge in sight on her belt. For a while that hadn’t been an answer and Becky debated whether she should leave, the man probably wasn’t in now

Becky almost turned to leave when shockingly a Hispanic boy no younger than six years old opened the door. He had a tacky pair of jeans on and no t-shirt but his blonde hair was messed up with a bright smile on his face almost like he had just been playing. Another older Hispanic man walked up from behind him also with a smile on his face but it turned to a frown when he noticed Becky at the door and an even bigger frown when he saw the detective badge clipped onto her belt. He bent down to the boy and spoke softly with a raspy voice, “Mi hijo, go and wait inside I’ll be back in a minute,”

The boy complied and went back inside leaving just Becky and the man, who she presumed must have been Rafael. His face turned to anger, “What are you doing here Detective I haven’t done anything wrong and only just got my son back. I’m clean,”

Becky saw the panic hidden behind the anger so tried to calm him down, “Hey, hey I’m not here to arrest you,”

“You’re not?” A shocked expression turned on his face as if the police had never been on his side. It hurt Becky that he automatically expected the worse.

“No my name’s Detective Becky Lynch and I’m investigating Hugo De Camprio’s death,”

“Hugo, he died four months ago of a heart attack didn’t he, why are you investigating now?”

“Something got brought up, look I just want to ask some questions about the assault he did on ya back in 1999. It interested me that it happened with Ric Flair,”

Rafael looked confused for a moment but then it looked as if the memories were coming back to him, “Oh that old thing. Beat me to pulp Hugo. At that point I was a complete junkie and I wasn’t paying for the drugs. Tough love really,”

Becky was confused and asked, “Tough love, beating you to a pulp was tough love,”

“At that time yeah, next time I paid for the drugs and Ric let me keep selling. Ric treated me like a son when he found me on the streets when I was a teenager. Took me off heroin, I couldn’t really get off anything else but now I’m clean and I have a son. When Hugo beat me it was by complete luck that an officer spotted us but Ric’s powerful and rich, didn’t phase him,”

“So was Hugo close with Ric?”

“Definitely, Ric treated him like family. I don’t really know anything else, the only thing I can tell you was that I sold Ric’s drugs and he helped me get clean, I didn’t really know Hugo but when he was close to death he went to church a lot more. The first time I’d seen him in years. It was almost like he knew he was going to die so he put himself closer to God. If you want to know more about Hugo, I would talk to Father Roode,”

Becky looked up and down the man there was no indication he was lying and she took the information as helpful, Rafael had at least guided her on a path. She hated that she would have to leave him and his son in this place but there was nothing she could do and she was happy that the man was clean now. She hoped that she would never see him at the police station, “Well I’m going to go, thanks for the information. It was helpful,” Becky turned around and walked down the corridor.

“Yo Irish,” the man quickly shouted down, Becky turned, “Your the first police detective to treat me like an actual person. Gracious,” He swiftly turned back into his apartment and Becky could hear the laughter coming through the other side of the door. It put a smile on her face but she didn’t know how to respond to that statement, it was no doubt a strong one though. Still there was an itch at the back of her head, Rafael said that Ric treated Hugo like family and still Charlotte denied ever knowing the man but again she let it go.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Becky found the church, she could tell it was respected in this neighbourhood. There wasn’t a crack in the walls or doors, there was no graffiti covering the bricks, the glass was shining pristine and the grass was green and well kept. It was a complete juxtaposition to the rest of the area that had been poverty stricken and unprovided for. Seeing a church cared for so much reminded her of Ireland and the Catholic church she had grown up with but through the years she had stopped going to church and found the practices a little overboard to be close to God. She believed in God but not that much.

Walking up the stairs was a little intimidating and a sense of guilt had hit her for not coming to a church in so long but she went along and touched the handle. It was cold to the touch but she pushed further anyway. Inside was glorious, there were pews lining the hall and a golden altar at the top where the Father no doubt gave the sermons. Candles lit the hall and sunlight naturally came through the artistic window panes. It was almost as if God had blessed it himself, Becky had thought.

Becky noticed that nobody was in church at the moment and nobody was independently praying for themselves which made it easier when she had to talk about sensitive information. Becky carried on looking around and awestruck she sat down at the far end of the hall. Right now felt like a time she could relax and let her stresses fly away.

Unnoticed a person had come up behind Becky, “You’re not from around here,” Becky jumped out her seat taken back by the sudden distraction but turned around to see a man dressed in a black cassock, with a warm smile on his face. 

Becky was quick to react in her most strongest Irish accent she’d learn to weaken over the years, “Ah din’t see ya ther’,”

The priest was surprised for a moment to hear Becky but instead comforted the obviously surprised woman, “I didn’t mean to scare you child. I was just wondering why you’d come to this church of all places, it’s mainly for the locals and not to offend, you don't seem very local. Do you mind if I sit?” Becky found the man to be very warming so she waved her hand to signal for the priest to sit.

“Sorry for intruding and no I’m not from around here but i promise you I haven’t just come shipped from Ireland, I’m actually a detective and I came to the neighbourhood to investigate. I was coming to ask for you but I was just amazed at this place. It seems like there’s a lot of respect for this place,” Becky looked at the man, who still had a smile on his face and looked around at his church from the compliment.

“This neighbourhood is mainly poor and full of immigrants and refugees so to have this place is a luxury to all of us. Obviously, I must ask why you would be asking for me,”

“Nothing bad but I’m investigating Hugo De Camprio’s death, I was told that you would know a little bit more about him,”

The priest’s face deflated saddened to hear the name, “Ah Hugo an unfortunate death may he rest in peace. I was very saddened to hear that he was taken away from us so quickly and even angrier that his body had been cremated but they wouldn’t allow me to bury him on the church grounds due to his illegal status. He was a charming man but I must confess he had only come to church a few months prior to his death. For six years he hadn’t come to these walls and then he started to come again, it was almost like he knew he was going to die,”

“Do you think that anybody would have even wanted him dead?”

“Many people, many people,” the priest sighed but carried on, “Do you mind me asking what your name is?”

“Becky but I guess in these church walls, Rebecca,” A sour taste had entered Becky’s mouth but she accepted it was her Christian name.

“You’re Catholic?”

“Yeah but I stopped practising years ago, my relationship with God is complicated,”

“I’m open to talk,”

“You would be,” the priest smirked but let Becky carry on, “I guess growing up with so much religion put me off religion. All the practices seemed useless and my mum wouldn’t let us skip a Sunday, frightened that the devil might get her. I believe in God but I don’t at the same time. However, I try everything to be the moral compass in any situation,”

“Believing in God is complicated, even I still have my doubts but I believe that we all have a path and when we reach it we find all the answers,”

Becky bit back a laugh but replied, “Your wisdom is a little bit complicated for my simple mind. I’ll take it no doubt,”

“You’ll understand someday but back to Hugo, you did come here with a purpose. He confessed to me stuff I can’t relay but I do believe his death wasn’t a coincidence. I’ll be back in a minute, I need to receive something,” the priest stood up and went to his room quickly coming back with something in his hand, Becky stood up confused.

“He gave this to me just two days before his death and told me to not hand it in to the police but if anyone came questioning about him, to give it to them. I tried to understand what he was going to do but at last he didn’t tell me. I thought this key was just going to rust in the draw if I’m being honest,” the priest handed Becky the key and Becky quickly examined it. It wasn’t a key she would be able to identify without help from the police station but she could also tell it wasn’t a house key.

“Did he say anything about what it could be for? I can tell it’s no house key,” Becky questioned, still studying the make of the key and length that could all be important in figuring out the puzzle.

The priest thought for a moment, “No I don’t believe he said anything but he did say that, that key is important, what for is beyond my knowledge and somehow I don’t wish to know,”

Becky put the key into her pocket and looked at the priest gratefully, “Thank you for this Father Roode, you didn’t have to give it,”

“I was merely doing something Hugo asked for and I must admit that there was never any closure on Hugo’s death so if you can get that I will be eternally grateful,” the priest had an affectionate smile that Becky held dearly, some part of her wanted her to stay even talk about God. She was sure he had more wisdom to offer.

“I’ll be sure to do everything in my power to find that closure and maybe I might just come back. Although I’m not very serious about religion, one day at church wouldn’t hurt me,” Becky offered a smile back at the priest.

“Well then I’ll be happy to see you again Becky,”

With one final smile Becky turned the other way, closing the church doors behind her. Meeting the priest Becky felt more optimistic in her life than she already was and now all she had to do was go to Charlotte give her a hug and a kiss to make her worries go away. Seeing this neighbourhood was eye opening in a way and she would do everything to protect it. Step one, get rid of the drugs.


	5. I'll be your number one

A constant migraine was at Charlotte’s head, the stress was unbearable at this point, now after Becky had went to investigate a murder, she was asking about Hugo fucking De Camprio. A name she never wanted to hear again. A name that was the most incriminating part of her. She had lied to Becky, she had known the man and he was a part of her family. Yet the man she last saw was not the family she remembered.

Charlotte grabbed onto the table trying to steady herself not to fall, she’d never felt so much like this. She was pretty sure that her heart rate was starting to increase, drops of tears were getting past her steel regiment. She wanted to start crying and let the tears escape but her mind refused because she needed to remain strong and there was no way she could look at Sasha after this, she didn’t even know what to describe it. 

However, there was no stopping her heart rate from racing and lungs making her feel like she was suffocating. She couldn't help but hyperventilate because she felt like she couldn’t breath and the stress was overwhelming her. She was drowning. With a challenge, she sat down onto her bed and tried to focus on something other than Sasha, Hugo, dead body the list was endless and her ego was starting to sink.

Right now her over confidence was not helping her. She wanted to take control of this situation but she couldn’t, she couldn’t control Sasha, what Becky was doing and it brought a huge amount of uncertainty. Yet those two weren’t her problem, what she felt more than anything was a tremendous amount of guilt that she couldn’t force back with a huge amount of overconfidence. Nothing like this ever got past her.

Her breathing didn’t slow down and her lungs were getting increasingly tired but still she refused to cry or even think about her relationship with Becky. As long as Becky never found out then she would be able to continue the relationship and Becky would never question her for doing things. She tried to take a breath but found out that only seemed to make the hyperventilation worse. She thought that maybe she was dying but that seemed rather far fetched. Her overthinking quickly turned the thought to another.

Finally, she started to take more deep breaths, the rhythm starting to slow her heart beat down and the thoughts swirling in her head dampened. She only realised what she just experienced was a panic attack as much as she tried to avoid it but she told herself she needed to get her head straight again. Crying wouldn’t solve her problems. However, a deep wave of exhaustion hit her so she lay on her bed starting to think of a happier memory.

6 months ago…

Charlotte had just been in the lab and a wave of excitement hit her, she had been able to separate a combined cell of cancer together in order to see the works of the single cancer cell. Something like this didn’t come easily and her co-workers were ecstatic with her, they were one step closer to figuring out a cure to the incurable lung cancer they were testing on. 

For once she was able to forget about the stress in her life with her dad’s business and focus on the objective she had set herself the moment she had graduated with a Chemistry degree, helping people who needed it. Her co-workers had decided that the first thing they were doing tonight was heading for the drinks and Charlotte was to immediately comply.

Charlotte reluctantly agreed, instead of heading back to her business but she felt that maybe that night she had earned it to herself to take a break for the night and David could handle any business. She was sure that he would call if anything got crucial. David was good but his skills didn’t really involve anything social and the last time he had dealt with something a man had got his throat slit. It didn’t impress Charlotte but she kept her calm.

When her favourite co-worker Naomi came with her to her house, Charlotte knew that was it she had no escape plan. As much as Charlotte loved Naomi she was a lot to handle and she really couldn’t be bothered fighting back against her persistent talking or swaying the conversation to complete her point.

Once Charlotte had got to her room, Naomi sat outside in her living room. The first time Naomi had come round to her house she was absolutely awestruck by the wide view and more importantly the fact Charlotte’s living room was the size of her house. Charlotte would always remember Naomi’s first impression of the house and laugh, it went down like, “Girl... not all of us can be this rich,”

“Well it comes with the perks of growing up rich,”

“Girl…get that silver-spoon out of your mouth before I snatch your wig clean and kick the spoon out of your mouth,” the two amusingly laughed and Charlotte was pretty sure she never made a comment about her rich house again. Well not when a guest was in it.

Charlotte looked at her wardrobe, she had so many different outfits but nothing looked appealing. She didn’t want to dress slutty or even modest so it was hard to find the middle in between it. Instead Charlotte sighed and placed on a black pair of jeans and a red top, nothing like simplicity, it’s not like she was looking for any girls tonight, she was only going for a couple of drinks to celebrate.

Immediately Charlotte was hit with Naomi’s wrath as soon as she left her room, “Nuh ah, none of my girls are going out in a mum outfit. What the hell is this Charlotte, girl do I need to teach you some lessons, your not even wearing make-up,” Naomi stood in front of Charlotte with a disapproving look and Charlotte sighed, “It can’t be that bad,”

Naomi was never intimidating but right now if looks could kill. It was ironic for Charlotte considering she had faced people who had killed and remained calm and yet her own friend pestering her to put on a decent outfit was more scary. Charlotte tightened her face stubbornly but Naomi’s face was too much and the decisive win, “Fine I will go and get on a dress and put on some make-up, you win,”

“Girl what did you think would happen,” Naomi only laughed back and Charlotte rolled her eyes, “Yeah, yeah,”

Like a child, Charlotte re-entered her room and looked around her wardrobe again with a new found determination or the intimidated determination. She still saw nothing too appealing but this time she wasn’t searching so lazily. Her eyes cached on red dresses, green dresses and yellow dresses but they still seemed pretty boring or worn before. Charlotte felt that she was gonna run out of dresses at this point but finally a glimpse of hope was sparked in her.

The last dress she had in her wardrobe was never worn before and a twinge of guilt had been placed in her heart, the dress had been a gift to her but not by some random family member. This was the last gift given to her by her late brother, it brought a tear to her eye but she didn’t think about it. The dress was as beautiful as she remembered it, blue lace arms with cutout shoulders with a blue dress that tightened around the waist towards the knees. It wasn’t slutty and neither modest, she was celebrating something and so the dress was just right.

To finish the outfit that fit perfectly on her, she used natural make-up to highlight the natural elements in her face and lastly kept her blonde hair wavy. After initially wanting to remain boring she had to admit that she felt pleased with herself for bringing the outfit together and maybe Naomi would stop pestering her now. She felt pretty and quite normal, which she hadn’t felt in a long time since she had taken over the business only six months ago.

Proudly, Charlotte stepped out of her room and this time Naomi didn’t bring down her wrath she looked at Charlotte with a smile. For some reason Charlotte thought that her friend was going to say a snide remark as soon as she opened her mouth but Naomi held the same excitement as Charlotte, “Girl I said get a decent outfit but you’ve gone and out done yourself. I was gonna drag you out your room the time you were taking but I guess it was worth the wait. Let’s go though, firsts drinks on me,”

“Naomi I’m pretty sure I can pay perfectly fine for everyone,” Charlotte looked at Naomi seriously but Naomi was having none of that.

“Nonsense I’m paying for your first drink it’s a celebration for you and what have I said about having that silver spoon in your mouth and no buts,” 

Charlotte didn’t say another word, just let her friend lead on. She was going to lose the fight anyway there wasn’t much she could do.

Arriving at the chosen destination Charlotte was grateful that her co-workers had chosen a lively but quiet bar where nobody would recognise her, not that it was known she was a drug crime lord but a handful of criminals knew, they just didn’t come hanging out at this specific bar. Plus she wouldn’t find any raving socialites wanting to talk about business. Right now was the time to take a break and have some fun with her friends who she’d known much longer than drug business.

The bar was half full and held an average amount of conversation but in the corner of her eye she had noticed in the corner of the room was all her friends making the loudest noise. The group of friends had looked like they were waiting for Charlotte and had already bought drinks for everybody, it put a smile on her face to see the smiles on her friends' and co-workers faces.

As expected Naomi was the first to make a move, “Look guys are superstar has arrived,” a loud amount of cheers came from her friends, who all made a move to give Charlotte a hug. Naomi looked on like a proud parent.

“You guys didn’t have to do this all,” Charlotte announced loudly to the group but her other friend Dana quickly replied back, “Seriously Charlotte we know your rich but come and enjoy this night with us, you’ve earned it and now we're one step closer to finding a cure,”

It had been a couple of hours that Charlotte had conversed, laughed and felt normal but now she was starting to feel exhausted, she wasn’t used to having this much fun. Charlotte was close to calling a night but didn’t want to disappoint any of her friends who were still happily drinking and Naomi was even calling for the shots. Instead Charlotte optioned to take a break away from her friends and order her next drink.

Happily, Charlotte walked to the bar, taking her time and sitting on the uncomfortable bar. She signalled for the bartender, who was tending to some troubling customers which was perfect for Charlotte, she’d have an excuse to stay away from her friends longer. Sitting at the bar longer was a nice experience and for the first time in the night the place was perfectly quiet and there was no stress to please anyone.

She let her eyes drift off towards the rest of the bar that was pretty much full by now. There were people of all ethnicity, people on their own and people in groups all enjoying themselves and probably talking about normal things. Something Charlotte could probably not relate to. Her conversations were either about wealth or drugs.

She felt like her staring had lasted for five minutes now; she had only just noticed a slight nudge from someone at the bar. She instinctively reacted but found that the person who had just nudged her was sitting next to her. Unexpectedly, her breath got caught in her throat. The person who had just nudged her was a beautiful woman, with dark, vibrant orange hair and features that caught the eyes of Charlotte. Her body looked muscular and athletic that did things to Charlotte she wouldn’t outwardly admit.

Charlotte was about to awkwardly spill out an insult to the woman but found she held a miserable look on her face and was probably waiting for alcohol just like herself. The woman held no acknowledgement of Charlotte sitting next to her but like a regular called for the bartender's name who immediately rushed to the woman, leaving his troubling customers. Charlotte swore the man could have come to her instantly then.

The bartender offered a friendly chat, “Hard day on the job Becky,” he then poured a glass of whiskey out for the woman without her even asking, she gracefully took it with an exhausted smile.

Charlotte wasn’t one for eavesdropping or getting attention but right now this woman intrigued her and she kinda wanted to know a little bit more about her instead of looking at her pretty features. Recklessly, Charlotte made the swift decision to place out a hundred dollar note on the bar, which definitely caught the attention of the bartender but more importantly the woman she wanted to know more about.

Charmingly, Charlotte said to the bartender, “For the most expensive wine you have and the woman’s drink,” Charlotte subtly winked to the woman who held a shocked but tired expression on her face.

“Are you drunk lass,” the woman immediately replied back but in a strong Irish accent Charlotte could really roll with and made the woman ten times hotter.

“Nope, just really rich,” the woman looked like she was more shocked at this moment but it was the only comment Charlotte could make, sparing herself from making a really cheesy pick up line she couldn’t take back. Charlotte could be quite charming, all with being a drug lord but realised at times she could be really awkward.

The woman looked like she was ready to leave but instead decided to stay, she even signalled for the bartender to leave and make the drink Charlotte asked for. Charlotte could notice the woman studying her before making another comment and again Charlotte had to admit it was quite hot to have the woman’s eyes roaming her body. Lastly the woman spoke, “Was there a reason you wanted to pay for the drinks mysterious rich woman,”

“I mean I’d say it’s pretty clear, my name's Charlotte,” the woman had now fully turned her chair to look face to face with Charlotte. Their eyes briefly met and strangely Charlotte felt a weird connection but didn’t advance on it.

“Well Charlotte, the name’s Becky,” the bartender came back with a rose wine suited to special occasions and Charlotte instantly took a sip, thanking the bartender who looked on with a smirk but went back to other customers. Becky only rolled her eyes.

“So you know the bartender,” Charlotte inquired.

“He’s an old friend Seth, helped me get settled here in America. I’m pretty sure it’s clear I’m not originally from here,”

“So what do you do Becky,”

“I’m a police officer, hence the local bar being my night's end. What do you do Charlotte?” Charlotte was quickly taken back, Becky was a police officer and here she was flirting with her and putting her entire operation at risk. She wanted to run but now she got this far she kinda liked the danger, and this stranger. Charlotte’s entire inner conscious was telling her to get herself from this woman right now but the connection pulling her towards Becky couldn’t. 

She tried so hard to pull away but failed miserably and quickly made up a half lie of what she truly did to accumulate so much wealth, “Well I’m a chemist and not to brag but I’m here tonight to celebrate our latest success in creating another step to finding a treatment for an incurable cancer,”

“So your with the group of geeks over there getting drunk,”

“What can I say, something like what we did took years of research,”

Becky looked on longingly, enough to make Charlotte slightly blush. Becky put a smile to her face, “I like you Charlie,”

“Charlie?,” Charlotte was suddenly surprised by the nickname that rolled so nicely off Becky’s tongue. Again, she felt more and more compelled by this woman and she was pretty sure it wasn’t the alcohol talking.

“It suits you,” Charlotte was going to reply with a heartfelt comment but heard the ringtone she set specifically for her brother. She rolled her eyes and saw that it also took Becky off her trail of conversation. Charlotte was going to ignore the call but realised getting involved with a police officer was less important to what her brother must be calling about, she still held her utmost loyalty to the business she carried on her back. She couldn’t risk it now.

Becky forced a smile but kindly stated, “It’s fine, it looks like that call is important,”

Charlotte found herself within an inner conflict she couldn’t believe she was a having right now. Becky was a police officer for fuck sake. Before reaching for her phone, she hesitated. She wanted so badly to pick up the phone but couldn’t bring herself to do it. She was being careless with her business that still held so many cracks, one more hit could potentially destroy it. Yet it was only one night and she wanted, no she needed to carry on talking to Becky. Carelessly, Charlotte forced her phone onto the bar and replied back with a smile, “No my brother can wait until tomorrow,”

“You want to get outta here,” Becky moved closer to Charlotte, not so subtle. For some reason Charlotte had become entranced by Becky and couldn’t even coherent a word, Charlotte hadn’t felt so awkward in a while. Becky picked up on the sign so decided to to stroke a stray hair from Charlotte’s face, “Guess I have to do all the talking now,”

Becky grabbed a hold of Charlotte’s hand and Charlotte let Becky lead her on the way she wanted to go. Charlotte was pretty sure she would go wherever Becky wanted to go. Becky was taking her to the back of the pub where a back door was present. Forcibly, Becky opened the door as if her life depended on it, she wanted Charlotte so badly even though her pride didn’t admit it.

Swiftly, Becky pushed Charlotte against the wall and read the signs of Charlotte who was smiling so much it was intoxicating. Becky looked Charlotte in the eyes filled with lust and took a moment to remember Charlotte and not treat her like some random hooker. Becky could see Charlotte growing impatient so decided to smirk and tease her, “You really want to just hook up with me,”

“Do I need to…” Becky saw the frustration on Charlotte’s face so instead of letting her carry on, Becky caught Charlotte off guard and smashed her lips against Charlotte’s. An instant fire had been lit in both Becky and Charlotte. Charlotte could feel the magical touch of Becky’s lips that tasted addicting; she could feel them melting together like a perfect puzzle. Charlotte was sure she didn’t want to let this go but unfortunately the need for air was too strong to carry on.

Becky thought it was almost possible that an animal had been freed in herself that she didn’t realise she had. Charlotte had heightened her senses to a new level, she was even questioning whether Seth had spiked her drink before giving it to her. Immediately, Becky pushed her lips back onto Charlotte’s without a second thought. There really was no break between the two and yet they were complete strangers making out at the back of the bar.

Charlotte finally initiated a break feeling a strong urge to do something more than just make out like teenagers, “So how about you come to my penthouse?”

Becky bit her lip knowing full well having sex with a random stranger wasn’t like her but also feeling the push towards this woman she found to be a drug. It was ironic that she was taking this drug when her job was to stop drugs from ever entering anyone's system. Yet the bait was too much, Charlotte was too much, “Wouldn’t you want to say bye to your little friends first?”

“Don’t know, do you want to stop kissing me,”

“You asked me whether I wanted to come to your penthouse, silver spoon,” Charlotte raised her eyebrow but was defeated and she did have to say bye to her friends in case they thought she had been kidnapped. She was pretty sure Naomi would scream from the rooftops to find Charlotte and knowing the streets they would think Naomi was looking for trouble in order to get drugs, so best to just say bye.

“Fine you win but you're coming to my penthouse, milky bar,” Charlotte walked back inside, making a show Becky found appealing no doubt. Charlotte found all her friends laughing and that gave her a rare, warm, happy feeling. She thought she might even stay but that thought was quickly swept away by the urge to do things to Becky, she hadn’t done in a while. She was glad the smile she put on her face wasn’t fake, it was real.

Naomi, out of nowhere, hugged Charlotte so tight she was sure that she was sure that she would com-bust. Charlotte knew this was normal behaviour out of a very drunk Naomi and now she was determined to get out of this place as quickly as possible. Naomi spilled out words Charlotte was lucky to understand, “Girl, where have you been? Where’s the drinks?”

“Oh you know, just doing something. Anyway I’m going to be going now, so I wish you well,”

“Okay, what’s this about. You were just doing something and now you're leaving before the end of the night party starts. This was supposed to be your night girl, you can’t leave us now,” Charlotte felt her cheeks starting to go red, which she did not want to happen. Naomi spotted it.

“Well em, I…”

“No way,” Charlotte saw the realisation hit in Naomi’s eyes as soon as they lit up and her theory was even more supported by a quick glance to the back of the bar where Becky was standing with the smuggest look on her face; Charlotte wan’t to wipe off. Naomi almost started to laugh but instead announced to the group, “Charlotte’s leaving us to go bang a redhead,”

The entire group turned their attention to Charlotte and the amount of embarrassment Charlotte felt was infinite, she was sure she looked like a tomato. The group started to laugh but Dana was the first one to shout out, “Go get it girl,”

Charlotte didn’t even bother to say anything else, too embarrassed and ashamed to try and make herself feel better. Instead she turned around and something else in her controlled actions, maybe the alcohol in her system. Sure she was embarrassed but instead she decided to embrace this and walked over to Becky, grabbed her by the top and pulled her in for a dominant kiss. Becky was shocked but Charlotte was more shocked in herself.

Her group of friends had cheered her along and the entire bar had turned their attention to the pair still making out publicly. Charlotte ended it suddenly and instead of looking around at the amused faces she grabbed Becky by the hand and rushed out of the door, hearing the laughs of people on the other side.

Charlotte signalled for the taxi and pulled Becky in with her. Becky through all of this had a massive smirk on her face that just wouldn’t go away, Charlotte had to do something about that. Charlotte swiftly climbed onto Becky’s knees and whispered into her ear, “I swear you better be good in bed after all that,”

“Why would you even doubt me,” Again Becky pushed her lips against Charlotte's, having no patience to wait until they got to Charlotte’s penthouse.

The taxi driver pulled up onto the curb, enduring the female make out session but found this to be a regular occurrence. He was used to this shit but he got paid. However, the look on his face turned when he found the blonde lady pull out a hundred dollar note for a fifteen dollar journey and cockily spill out, “Keep it, I got plenty,”

Charlotte guided Becky to the building and Becky had to admit, she wasn’t expecting this rich. Charlotte found herself smirking this time now but still led Becky inside wanting to finally take the clothes off Becky. However, Becky felt an immediate panic when she saw the lift Charlotte was leading her to. No way was she taking the lift.

Becky stopped, surprising Charlotte but she wouldn’t push if Becky didn’t want to. Becky admitted, “I can’t take the lift lass,”

“What,”

“Well you know, they got that weird motion,”

“Your telling me we have to take the stairs,”

Becky sighed, “Your choice,”

The thing was Charlotte was willing to do anything in order to please Becky and if that meant going up ten flights of stairs she would. She had no idea what Becky had ignited in her but she wanted Becky and not just exclusively for one night. Charlotte was playing a dangerous game but it was one she was willing to take, “Well then, after you but I have a feeling going up the stairs will take a while,”

The smile Charlotte recognised on Becky wasn’t one filled with lust and definitely not one you would find on a one night stand, it was special. This was better than just going out with her friends occasionally; she forgot about all the stresses in her life just being present with Becky and that was something she didn’t want to let go of.

Back in the present day, a single teardrop had dropped to Charlotte’s pillow staining it with guilt and overwhelming sadness. She wanted Becky to hold her, comfort her, tell her everything would be okay but that could never be a reality. She wasn’t sure what would cause more pain admitting the truth or leaving Becky.

Instead Charlotte walked over to her computer and opened up word documents, smartly communicating her feelings into writing. The words flowed naturally but all words commuted with sadness. Her final product was short but got to the point, she re-read through it in her head,

'To Becky,

There’s a lot you know about and then there’s a lot you don’t know about me. If I could say it aloud I would but I could never put that stress and more importantly guilt on your shoulders. Knowing that I carried on my father’s legacy would break you and I could never do that to you. I am so sorry I carried on our relationship the night I met you but I felt the connection, you were special the minute I met you. It was selfish of me but at the same time I’m glad I did carry on because you are the best part of me.

I will do everything to make sure you don’t find out for both our sakes. I want you to know that I would move this damn earth for you if I had to. I love you so much Becky Lynch and I would willingly scream it off the top of buildings. Please don’t ever forget that. whatever happens.

I love you so much,  
Charlotte x'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would have uploaded sooner but a lot of migraines. Also the lift fear is actually pulled from my real life fear of lifts, thought you should have known that useless fact. Plus, I've definitely felt all the panic attacks, hate the things, so I tried to get as accurate as possible through story.


	6. What

“Matt, Matt!” Becky ran into the precinct calling out for her partner in a crowded room, the rest of the police officers would rather not deal with it but here they were tolerating it. Usually Becky would be a little bit more respectful but as she drove closer to the police station she felt even more excited to figure out her little puzzle. In record time she had found a key that seemed important and could link to anything. Something even incriminating.

Matt turned around coolly, stopping his conversation with a random police officer. He held a small grin on his face because he realised how excited Becky was, he figured she must have found something in order to en cite that type of reaction. He trusted his partner completely and knew that if anybody could figure out an impossible case it was Becky fucking Lynch. Plus to top it all she had only left the precinct a couple of hours ago.

Becky stopped in front of Matt who was lifting his eyebrows, obviously curious to what Becky might have found out. However, he quickly made a comment, “Bro, you might want to calm down. You won’t be able to get a word out,”

Swiftly Becky rolled her eyes, she was just getting his attention, “So I looked into whether Hugo had a file and turns out he did commit a crime back in 99, beat up a man but you’re never gonna guess who he beat the man up with,”

“The ice-cream man,”

Becky sternly looked at Matt, “No,” Matt reacted by putting his hands up in surrender, “Ric Flair,”

Not a lot stunned Matt out of his cool persona but right now he did hold a shocked look on his face, his eyes growing wide, “Your girls dad,”

Becky rapidly put a frown to her face and hit Matt in the arm that sounded a quick squeal of pain out of Matt. It was satisfactory but she thought Matt knew better then to make comments like that, “You leave Charlotte out of this,”

Matt realised what he did wrong and quickly spilled out, “Alright, alright. But yeah whenever his name is mentioned there’s usually something not right and mostly connected to drugs like this case,”

Becky nodded her head along, “So I looked into the person who the pair had beat up, a man named Rafael, he had loads of drug convictions both selling and abusing. So I decided to pay the man a visit in Roxbury. He told me that he sold Ric’s drugs and when he abused them too much the pair beat him up as tough love,”

“That still doesn’t really tell us anything Becky,”

“Patience Matt,” Matt rolled his eyes, “What was more important was that Rafael said that Ric and Hugo were like family,” Becky intentionally left out the part to Matt where Charlotte had lied to her.

“Now that sounds more like it,”

“Yep but that’s not it. Rafael also said that before Hugo’s death he hadn’t been to church for years and then all of a sudden he just popped at church. Sounds like a man that knew he was going to die or was searching for some sort of redemption,”

“We can’t just jump to conclusions Becky,”

“I’m not. Rafael said to go to the priest in the church, so I did. The priest was adamant that there were people who wanted him dead and he said there was more but he couldn’t tell me as he said in a confessional. Just two days before his death he gave the priest this key,” Becky finally took out the key from her back pocket and handed it to Matt.

“The priest said that Hugo told him to keep it but give it to the first who asked about him. Come on Matt this isn’t a coincidence and that key could hold the answers to so many questions,”

Matt studied the key intently and looked at Becky, “Bro, I could kiss you right now. You just found out so many answers in a couple of hours. I recognise this type, it’s custom for a storage unit business and I use the exact same one,” Matt rushed to pull out his key from his Hawaiian shirt top pocket. It showed a match.

Becky looked up even more shocked and happy, “No way,”

Matt and Becky were quick to fist bump in an act of excitement and Becky commented, “Well then partner, lead the way,”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere in Boston a person dressed in black looked through into the police cameras and muttered, “Checkmate,” they then moved their chess piece to block the king.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matt sat in the car fiddling with the radio, which Becky always hated and thought Matt was acting like a petulant child. Becky swatted Matt’s hand away and Matt responded with a fake sulk, “You know I hate the silence bro,”

“Well what do you wanna talk about,”

“Can I ask you an extremely personal question that you don’t have to answer,”

“What,”

“What would you do if you found out Charlotte was linked with drugs, carrying on a legacy?”

Becky was caught off guard by the question and it was one she had dowelled on the minute she had found out that Charlotte’s father was Ric Flair. When Charlotte had told her she hadn’t held anything back and it was as if she knew that Becky was going to leave her but instead Becky surprised Charlotte and held her hand, offering her support. Becky found that was nothing in her gut telling her that Charlotte had ever done anything.

What Becky was really asking herself was, was she right or she was naive. Yet Becky trusted Charlotte and she trusted Charlotte to do what was right. The woman Becky had met was an awkward, slightly confident woman that made Becky feel alive. She remembered a fond memory of Charlotte taking Becky to her lab and showing her all of her work that she was so passionate about, that it just made Becky fall in love with her even more. This woman she loved was working on cures for an incurable disease.

Becky after a moment of silent thought sternly punctuated her words with emphasis, “She wouldn’t,”

“But hypothetically,”

“Matt I love ya brother but you’re treading in waters. There’s no point dwelling a question when it won’t come true, I mean you’ve met Charlotte, you like her,” Becky didn’t mean to sound angry but she felt her blood boiling a little.

“I mean I was introduced to Charlotte with her clothes off, how could you not like that,” Matt tried to bring some humour back into the conversation, knowing he was being quite an ass today but all Matt was doing was trying to protect Becky but he also knew Becky could protect herself. Again he trusted Becky and Charlotte had never presented a problem.

Becky laughed a little by Matt’s tactics, they were quite impressive, “And that’s why you’re not allowed in my house without knocking now,”

Matt laughed and then suddenly deflated, “I am just trying to protect you bro,”

“I know but I also know I can look after myself,”

Thankfully, the air between them cleared and Becky was happy to see that the storage unit was just down the street. The answers they were looking for were just in their grasp ready to be inspected. Becky was definitely in the mood to catch some criminals and if her luck was as good as it had been, she was ready to take down an empire. Just one of her and also a Matt would watch it crumple and burn sending a message to anybody who wanted to make an empire. ‘Let the sky fall, When it crumbles, We will stand tall’

Okay Becky was no James Bond but if she took down an empire then she will be for one day.

Cue the Montague, Matt and Becky got out of the car and Matt smoothly threw Becky over a pair of sunglasses, which Becky then slowly pushed onto her face. Matt took out his snap-back that was firmly placed onto his head… Becky was the first one to notice the cringe, “Matt were in our thirties, what are we doing,”

“Bro, were catching some criminals and were doing it in style,” Matt winked over to Becky.

“Nope, I’m wearing sunglasses because it’s bright, no other reason,”

“Bro, you’re loss,” Somehow even at Matt’s age Becky found that Matt was pulling off the Montague without Becky and doing it with so much charisma there wasn’t any cringe. Becky at this point wanted to shake her head in disappointment

After reaching the reception the fat but muscled man, who was lazing in his chair, looked and recognised Matt, giving him a quick smile, “What can I do for you Matt, is this your girlfriend?”

Becky was quick to frown and was about to angrily take out her badge but Matt put a strong hand on Becky’s arm showing a strong sign that Matt didn’t want her to get the badge out for whatever reason, “There’s no need to get out the badge Becky, meet Otis,”

The man looked reasonably harmless and Becky only realised the man was just trying to be friendly and spark a nice conversation. Becky had got so used to dealing with assholes that she forgot that there were still a lot of friendly people to balance it out. Otis looked like a friend to everyone once she took a real inspection of his wall, that held pictures of him and people enjoying themselves at parties. She even spotted one with Matt.

Matt replied, “No this is my detective partner, Becky. We were actually in need of your help,”

“Ah what can I help you both with,”

Becky was the first to speak up with a friendly tone, “We found a key that belongs to this storage unit building and we believe that it links to crucial evidence. We just don’t know which storage unit it is,”

Otis compiled without a problem which was rare in Becky’s job, “What name is it under?”

“Hugo De Camperio,”

“That’s storage unit 345 should be at the far end of the building,”

“Thanks. Come on then Matt,”

Matt gave the big guy a hug, which covered him in sweat that he ignored and gave him a quick bye. Becky was so weirded out now but she really couldn’t care to wonder about Matt’s weird but marvellous life anymore.

Finally the pair reached their final destination and Becky took a breath. She had no idea whether this was a complete failure or win but she had to find out. Matt took the key off of Becky seeing her nerves and decided to do it himself for her. He reached the padlock and pushed the key in. It was a perfect fit. Lastly, he twisted the key and heard the sound of a click releasing the chain from keeping the secrets bound.

Becky made a quick comment, as Matt reached the bottom of the door to reveal the secrets, “I swear if it’s his grandma's clothes…” Yet Becky didn’t finish her sentence because her hands instinctively rushed up to cover her mouth as Matt opened the door with no hesitation. What lay in that storage unit was more than anything both Matt and Becky could have ever imagined.

In the centre held stacks of hundred notes piled up on pallets that could easily equate to over a million dollars, mixed in with a pallet stack of cocaine. However, for detectives that wasn’t nearly the best part. On the back wall were military automatic weapons hanging up like a trophy case, Becky was sure it was illegal to own any of those guns. Again that wasn’t the best part because Matt and Becky’s eyes drifted over to the cloaked device in the corner of the room, shaped suspiciously like something that would terrify anybody.

Matt nodded over to Becky, “You do it, you were the one who found the storage unit,”

Becky nodded back and calmly grabbed a hold of the cloak, with one big tug the device was revealed as a weapon of mass destruction. Becky couldn’t believe it. Matt couldn’t believe it. They were staring at a 6,800 kg BLU-82. A bomb so powerful only around three hundred had been made. Becky had no idea what Matt and her had just stumbled across but she was at a loss for words. Even Matt was for a change. Hesitant, Becky staggered her words, “Matt call the Captain. Call the FBI. Call the fucking CIA. This goes much further than fucking drugs,”

Matt nodded his head, not giving a bro fist for a change but walking out serious about his job. 

Becky found that there was one more place they hadn’t looked and it was a neat file cabinet that must have held information that they needed. She opened the drawer and found many files marked confidential, a lot had been blacked out but the first that was out of place was a handwritten notebook. She took the item out and found the first thing that struck her was the same mark of Grant and Hugo’s tattoos plastered on the front of the book.

That was all the confirmation she needed to know that both of them were linked somehow with this business. She opened the notebook and almost dropped the book when she saw the title on the front, ‘Stock warehouses for Flair Industries’. Becky’s heart raced, how the hell was she going to tell Charlotte that her dad had a bomb stored in a storage unit.

Becky continued to read through the list finding that Flair Industries owned more warehouses then the police would ever know about. Then again she was surprised once more, she was ready to go to bed. The warehouse name she was looking at was the exact same on her note,

Warehouse *19 Boulder Street

No longer did Becky believe in coincidences because right now she needed to be there with an entire army at ten o’clock tonight. Becky saw that Matt had run back, “Captains on her way, FBI’s on the way. People I’ve never even heard of are on the way,” Matt noticed that Becky had a concerned face, “What’s wrong Becky,”

Becky looked up, “A note appeared on my desk this morning,” Becky handed Matt the note who read it thoroughly, “That same warehouse belongs to Flair Industries. Come on, it’s not a coincidence, not after today,”

Matt looked up at Becky, “I believe you and we are going to that location with an army. Also the captain said that all of this stays secret to the media until tomorrow, which means you can’t tell Charlotte,”

“What,”

“I’m sorry Becky but come on were a little preoccupied,”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In record time FBI, CIA and the police were swarming the building. Becky and Matt had been asked so many questions their heads were going to explode but finally Captain Phoenix had arrived and Becky ran over to her as fast as she could. In the same time the FBI had arrived at the building, Becky told her story to the Captain about the note and now she was waiting to see if the Captain was going to believe her.

Captain Phoenix took a sigh, “Becky I believe you, I would swarm that building but it’s out of my hands. Officially this investigation has been handed over to the FBI and the CIA because of the bomb. I would have to ask them, they have the power,”

Becky looked down at the floor, trying to contain her anger, “Then do it. Tell them. We have to do this. If we don’t then we might not have another chance. Please Captain,”

Captain Phoenix thought about if for a bit longer but took a breath, deciding to trust her detectives, “Then I’ll tell them,”

The Captain walked over to the Head of the Investigation and Becky could see that there were lots of signs coming off of them, some negative, some positive but one thing was clear there was some tension. At some point it looked like there was a disagreement and Becky felt like she was about to cry, her hope of swarming the warehouse gone. Instead, Becky saw that both the Captain and the Head of the Investigation were walking her away.

Becky put on her best professional face even though she was sick of it and smiled at them both. The Head Investigator placed out his hand, “My name is Special Agent Hunter Helmsley, you must be Detective Becky Lynch,”

Becky shook the agents hand, “Correct,”

“Well I want to go along with your plan, we have evidence in that storage unit that shows Flair Industries owns that warehouse, the insurance in copies is there and everything. Whoever is holding a meeting there must be the leader, I can feel it in my gut just like you Becky and we have an identification process,”

“The tattoo,”

“Precisely, however, I want you to lead the squad alongside me Becky,”

Becky could no longer hold her professionalism any longer after today, “What. I’m not even part of the FBI, why would you want me,”

“Becky, I'm interested to see whether the FBI could be a good fit for you. All I hear is good things from Captain Phoenix and today it took you a day to find a military bomb. Maybe your skills are needed in the FBI, think about it. However, we will be at that warehouse for ten o’clock tonight,”

Once Becky saw both the Captain and the Agent walk away Becky muttered a final, “What,”


	7. I hate you

Sasha had just got off the phone with her secretary, the police were keeping the media away from the looks of things, a very important discovery down at the storage warehouse docks. This did not make Sasha happy in the slightest considering the discovery had the FBI written all over it and her business couldn’t even make a trace of evidence for them to pick up. Sasha had ordered her entire staff to be all on high alert but now she had to make a hard decision.

While Sasha didn’t want to postpone her meeting with Charlotte Flair, she had to know whether it was the right decision to cancel. Now as much as she hated Charlotte with all her being the meeting was important. Sasha hated to admit it but being in a gang war with Flair was a bad idea because they were loud and attracted the attention from the police she didn’t need. However, if the situation were to get to the point of gang war, Sasha was damn sure she would win over a crumbling Flair Industries.

As well as that gang wars were irresponsible and Sasha was losing interest from international markets to do business, especially her prime target England. She had set her sights on England for a year and had an important asset to keep her reputation high for different markets. Again Sasha didn’t like it but she knew her business was still a little fish in a big pond and didn’t have nearly enough reputation as Flair Industries that could pull many strings at Charlotte’s beck and call. Whether Charlotte would do that was another matter.

This was why it was important that Sasha didn’t hire some random killer to kill Charlotte, organised crime didn’t work like that. With one action Sasha’s entire reputation would be shattered. She had to take down Charlotte with smarts and luckily for her Flair Industries had been sinking since Ric had fallen ill with cancer and then the tragic death of Charlotte’s brother, Charlotte had never been expecting leadership of the Industry. Sasha saw it as what it was, a business doomed to fail by an incompetent, silver-spooned, no good leader.

She hated to brag but the minute Sasha started to gain more power in the city, she had gained her important English asset from Charlotte’s business six months ago. Paige had even had a Flair Industries tattoo on her hip bone, she was supposed to be loyal to that business but instead she came running to Sasha… the winning team. At that time Sasha even observed Charlotte dating a cop, Sasha had to keeping asking herself how fucking stupid was Charlotte. Once Sasha ‘stole’ Paige from Charlotte they had become even more intense rivals and Sasha was certain Charlotte had even let a rat into her business but Sasha couldn’t be sure.

Yet this all circled back to that decision, she had to make it now, her meeting was only two hours away and she hadn’t heard anything back from Faris. The best thing she could do was pick up her phone and dial Charlotte’s number, instead she had to make that decision together, as much as she would rather stick salt into a gun wound. Sasha even poured herself a whiskey glass prepared for the worst.

Sasha rolled her eyes as the number was dialled into her burner phone.

\----------------------------------------------------

An anonymous figure's ears perked up as they heard the beeping of their phone. Charlotte was picking up a transmission from an unknown caller no doubt Sasha. The anonymous figure's face lit up like a Christmas tree, this was the moment they were waiting for. The moment the anonymous figure would put the final nail in Charlotte’s coffin.

With one click the anonymous figure sent over the entire call, once recorded, to the police station, more importantly Captain Phoenix. They couldn’t trust Becky with the evidence. Unfortunately, for Captain Phoenix the anonymous figure didn’t want Sasha to be detected so easy and thrown away to the wolves with one little call. They left Sasha’s voice highly encrypted to disguise any trace of Sasha’s voice and censored the use of Sasha’s name. Sasha was going to be the fun Charlotte couldn't be.

The anonymous figure grinned to themselves, the entire police, CIA and FBI were listening in and Charlotte didn’t even know it yet.

Captain Phoenix had been on the phone when she heard the sound of an important text message sound. She excused herself from the phone and read the message.

“Send this to the Head of the Investigation and get your arrest warrant ready - Anonymous”

On the message was a clip of a recording and Captain Phoenix was blown away by the overwhelming evidence. Charlotte Flair was the leader of Flair Industries and she had set up for Becky to be the one to catch her in the act but with all her integrity and loyalty she sent the evidence to Special Agent Hunter Helmsley.

Hunter received the recording and instantly sat up from his chair ready to catch drug lords in the act, now was the time for war and he knew who he was conquering. The only person who didn’t know was Becky herself and nobody was about to tell her beforehand because they were already too busy getting an arrest warrant signed off by a judge.

Everyone was even so preoccupied they didn’t care to question why the message had been sent off by an anonymous sender. 

\----------------------------------------------------

Charlotte picked her phone up seeing the call from an unknown number and instantly knowing it was Sasha, after she had heard that police had picked up on something and something pretty big that they wanted to keep it pretty secret, “Well if it isn’t my friend,”

The amount of toxicity in Charlotte’s words didn’t go unnoticed by Sasha who couldn’t care for her childish antics, “Hello to you Charlotte but right now isn’t exactly the time for you to be a child who inherited a big adult business. Are you still on business flashcards?”

“Sasha you act as if you know everything in the business but you're just too big for your boots,” Charlotte hated Sasha for that reason, she was the most egotistical person Charlotte had ever met and couldn’t keep calm when something wasn’t going her way.

“If I was so big for my boots then why do I have the growing support,”

“Because my dad died of cancer and my brother committed suicide! I am really not in the mood for your antics Sasha which is why the meeting is happening tonight,” Sasha had to admit she was not expecting that kind of response from Charlotte and it had taken her by surprise. Instead she had to be short and sweet, they still had to meet in person first.

“Fine meeting tonight, ten o’clock at the warehouse but I swear it better be worth my time,”

“You don’t even know what I’m capable of Sasha,” Charlotte hadn't felt this irritable and angry over Sasha in a while but right now she could say anything to Sasha.

“I’d like to see you try and watch as I crumble your empire until it’s nothing left but rubble and bones,”

“Save all your little comments till later sweety,”

Sasha had her final say ready to throw her phone across a wall, “Fine but we’ll see who comes better out of this meeting,”

Angrily, Sasha ended the call and threw the phone across the opposite side of her office. The phone shattered into tiny pieces and laid all over Sasha’s floor. Sasha wanted nothing more than to strangle Charlotte Flair but she reminded herself that there would be nothing to gain and she needed that. 

Sasha left the broken phone on the floor but walked over to the swivel chair and heavily placed herself down on it and huffed. Something in her had told herself that this was a bad idea and not listening to her gut was an extremely bad idea but she had to take risks for business to succeed. Charlotte had to be rid of and it wasn’t by some sort of luck, Sasha was smarter than that.

Five minutes later, Sasha was thinking of all the ways she could maul Flair when she heard a ringtone coming from her normal phone. She picked it up to see Faris’ contact and a wave of relief washed over her, he could tell her whether he found anything concerning. Without hesitation Sasha pressed the answer on her phone and softly spoke through the phone, “Faris, did you find anything?”

12 hours ago...

When Faris had been told he needed to find some information concerning a murder the first place he had set off towards was the crime scene itself. Some people would think this was a stupid idea but it was actually a smart one. Over the years Faris had learnt to be invisible and this meant blending in with the crowd and keeping his head down. He had placed himself in the middle of the spectators who were all busy trying to take a peek at the body. Faris wasn’t observing that, instead he was looking around at the officers in charge and more specifically the detectives.

Faris spotted a long haired, Hawaii shirt wearing dope and instantly recognised him as Detective Matt Riddle, which could only mean one thing. He looked to his right and saw the stand out in the crowd, a redhead to be more specific. In just one observation Faris had found out that Detective Becky Lynch aka Charlotte’s Flair’s girlfriend was a detective in the investigation. It made sense why David had got his information so fast.

However, Faris wasn’t done yet, just because he knew Becky was a detective in the investigation didn’t get him information. Becky was not a person he could get information from, he needed to find an officer who was more naive and would spill out information without even meaning to. Not to mention, he was pretty sure if he started to speak to Becky, Charlotte would get word and his lights would be put out.

Faris had been keeping his eyes on Becky and following where she went all in an attempt to see whether he could find people who were communicating with her. The only ones he had seen though were the forensics and her partner which wouldn’t get him anything. He started to think his chance of finding anything here was fading away and he was ready to take his ball to the streets but then he found something intriguing.

Becky was standing around on her own but coming behind her was an overactive young police officer. He didn’t recognise her at all and he usually made it his focus to keep an eye on the police and the individuals in it. The woman had handed Becky over a note but it looked as if Becky was berating her for whatever reason. Yet Becky took the note and put it into her jean pockets. Faris had found his target and he needed to find out what was on that note. Luckily for him the woman was forced to leave the crime scene and she held the face of someone full of disappointment.

Faris would have gone up to her then and there but instead he decided to let her exit towards her car, he couldn’t seem to be suspicious and that meant finding her somewhere else. Discreetly, Faris swiftly typed in the license plate on his phone. Sasha was a genius when it came to computers so she had designed a system to use the traffic cameras as a way to trail cars. Traffic lights had some of the lowest security Sasha had ever seen.

Tracking had seen the woman only go back towards the police station which meant he would have to wait in order to see where she would go next.

11 hours later…

While Faris was waiting for any movement from the woman, Faris had kept himself preoccupied with seeing some of his contacts and gang leaders, they all knew nothing and nobody had even heard of the man whose identity was confirmed on the news. The more people he talked to the more he began to think that the man who had been murdered wasn’t even connected to drugs, which is why he couldn’t his finger on why the police were still leading with that.

Finally, Faris looked down to see that a notification had come up telling him that the woman was on the move and it was seven o’clock so the woman must have finished her shift. Faris watched where the woman was going hoping it was relatively close as he had no car or license.

Her trip was overall five minutes and she had got out of her car making her way to a Starbucks, thankfully his trip would only take ten minutes and he made his way as fast as he could hoping that the woman wouldn’t get back in her car.

Fast forward, Faris was outside the shop; inside there were only a fair amount of people and it looked like the woman was talking to the barista as if they were well acquainted. Faris figured that the woman must have been a regular here, all he needed to do was grab the attention of the woman and figure out what was on that note.

His plan started to articulate fast in his head and he began his plan of action.

Step one - Walk inside the building, there was nothing special about that though. He walked over to the counter and found that the barista gave a final warm smile to the woman but quickly walked over to Faris. The barista was a woman with short black hair and a tanned body, it looked like she trained in the gym a lot. Faris saw that the nameplate on her uniform read, “Bayley” but her smile looked as if she were to work with kids.

Faris decided it would be best to put on a bit of a show, after all sympathy worked in lots of cases. Faris stepped next to the counter and saw that a wet sign was placed next to the counter. He squiffy placed a foot out onto the wet floor and dramatically took a fall to the floor, making sure that his face even caught the floor.

Fortunately, Faris immediately saw the woman come to his aid but looked on as the rest of the customers looked and stared as if nothing happened. Then there were teenagers who were ashamed they couldn’t reach out for their phone in time. It seemed Faris had found the right target but now he couldn’t really think about that because he was sure his eye was swelling and his nose was bleeding.

A slight touch from the woman had put butterflies in Faris' stomach and he sat himself up from the floor, she was instantly looking upon the injuries Faris had sustained. He was even sure the woman was frowning at the deep scar on his face. Fair couldn’t be sure but it looked as if this woman really did care. A sudden hole had ached in Faris’ heart.

The woman then began to speak in an Australian accent that caught Faris off guard, “Are you alright mate,”

Rhea had then been caught off guard when he heard the English accent coming from the poor man, “Oh yeah, I’m fine, just slipped,”

Faris hadn’t meant to laugh or speak without thinking but he did, “I guess we're both foreigners, the name’s Faris. Could I ask yours?”

Rhea grabbed a hold of the man and helped him up, double checking for any injuries. She might have looked creepy but she looked him up and down, he could have been wobbling on a broken limb for all she knew. It was as if her nature had the first instinct to make sure the man was okay and given the best treatment possible. It was only when she looked at the man she saw him smirking and laughing, even with his facial injuries.

Rhea tried to get a grasp on what the man had just said, “Sorry what did you say,”

“Oh well I was just saying were both foreigners, kinda funny you know,” 

Rhea raised her eyebrow but went along with the man, he did look harmless, “Sure... Look maybe Bayley would let us go into the kitchen and I can clean those cuts for you, would that be alright,”

Faris found the opening he was looking for and knew he needed to capitalise on this, “Oh I wouldn’t want to be any trouble,”

Rhea expected the kind of reaction and gave a warm smile, “Oh don’t worry it won’t be any trouble, I get the training for a reason and it’s best you don’t get an infection right,”

Faris did find the woman to be quite charming even if it was the reaction he was looking for, “Well then if Bayley will allow it,”

From across the counter Bayley had been watching the sweet exchange, it was enough to give anyone a heart warming smile. She watched on as Faris talked to Rhea, she just loved the idea of the boy; it was really something that Rhea could cling onto. Bayley then made a quick reply to the two of them, “Oh sure Rhea you can use the kitchen and the tea towels, there’s no one else working in there right now. I mean I’m usually on my own in this coffee shop,”

“Thanks Bay you really are the kindest person I’ve met,”

“What can I say,” Bayley laughed back and watched as the two left for the kitchen.

Bayley stood at the counter by herself and thought of many ideas. She finally whispered to herself, in a self appreciative voice, “Oh this is gonna be so much fun Sasha. Our chess game has just begun as Charlotte’s ends,”


	8. Introduction to Bayley

Darkness. Darkness can take over someone's life, it can take over someone’s morals and it can take over every inch of light you can see. People can say they're not afraid of the dark or even the unknown but they're liars. Darkness works in a way where one minute everything is fine but the next is the unpredictable you told yourself you're not scared of. 

In a box, in the dark and in the cold was a beaten, broken down soul restrained to a single chair. Although the room was dark and there was no sunlight creeping into the room, a black bag was worn on their head to take away the ability to breath in a natural way and to raise the temperature to an unsustainable level. They couldn’t cry for the fear of leaving the bag soaking, it was both evidence to the people who captured them weakness and an uncomfortable feeling left on their face.

As well, the person’s hands were restrained to the back of the chair and their ankles were restrained to the legs of it. They had been tied up using a cheap thick rope that would leave marks on their skin from a single touch but they had been restrained for days. Their skin was almost burning at this point but there was nothing they could do about it but try to think of something else to relieve their pain. Yet they were scared to admit their mentality was slowly reaching breaking point.

However, their experience being captured was not the worst thing happening to them. Just days ago shrapnel had been pulled out of their back but the wounds had not been properly attended to, they could feel their temperature spiking unnaturally and they knew this was a bad sign. They couldn’t tell whether they were experiencing dizzy spells from the lack of sight but they knew their body was extremely dehydrated and a taste of water would be a touch of gold to them.

They knew their kidnappers were purposely dehydrating and starving them and they were lucky they had been trained to handle lasting longer than the average person to stay alive but that wasn’t enough. They didn’t even know if they were in hell yet...

Bayley was suddenly awoken in a cold sweat and she was left panting for any breath, her heart rate had spiked to abnormal levels. She let herself go through the waves but took deep breaths to calm herself down. For Bayley sleep didn’t come easy but there was nothing she could do about it, the things she experienced would haunt her for the rest of her life. Instead of dwelling on things she couldn’t control, she dowelled on things she could control.

Quickly, Bayley looked at the time on her alarm clock - 6:00 am - she gave out a slight grown realising that she had only really slept for two and half hours after she had attended to business down at the beach. She did kind of want the man to be killed earlier so she could get some more sleep but he just had to be difficult running around the allies as if his life wasn’t in danger. Bayley had to admit she was shocked at how much the man stayed mute when he died but he was the start of her entire plan today, he had to die.

Today was the day when everything truly commenced, her plans had been set out and she had done enough observing. She was going to bring justice to these streets and her first target was Charlotte Flair. Bayley despised her. It was true the two had never met personally before but after a year of observing her, she was disappointed in the woman. She was a hypocrite and Bayley hated hypocrites. 

Ordinarily, Bayley lifted herself up from her bed with no trouble and no complaints. Her first task of the day was meditation, an odd first task but one she did regularly. A deep breath was taken by Bayley as she changed her position to sit cross legged on the floor, she always found that meditation helped to ground her when she needed it the most to think logically and remain disciplined. Usually she would make her way to the gym as well but today she was too busy for that to happen. It was only hours till the authorities found Grant’s body.

After her short meditation session Bayley made her way to her computer and looked around to see whether there were any news outlets reporting but it seemed no one had made a discovery yet, it seemed like everyone was having a lazy day apparently. Bayley looked further around on her computer and decided to click on her targets files, she needed to remind herself why she was doing the justice she was doing in order to savour her achievement. Her first click was Charlotte herself: 

Name: Charlotte Elizabeth Flair  
Age: 34  
Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts  
Occupation: Drug Lord of Flair Industries and Chemist at Quantum Research  
Education: Masters Degree in Chemistry  
Personality: Calm, intelligent and preserved, I’ve observed Charlotte as a natural leader. She can keep her nerve but she is selfish and foremost a hypocrite.  
History: Charlotte grew up with Ric Flair as a father, she was born with a silver-spoon in her mouth it may be the reason why Charlotte pursued Chemistry as a profession. She wants to help people but can’t do it directly, she has to figure a huge puzzle to get to that destination, otherwise the effort she made is not enough. The research she does will help on a wide scale but we also have to realise Charlotte chose to take over a business that brings harms to thousands and gives them cancer in the first place.  
I believe that Charlotte took her place as leader because otherwise she would have failed her family. It is inherently selfish and I’d have to meet and get to know Charlotte to understand but that would put my entire operation at risk. My judgement is final that Charlotte must face justice but that doesn’t mean she has to die.

Bayley nodded, pleased at her notes but decided to look at the next file. When Bayley had first started observing Charlotte and Sasha’s businesses she had not anticipated seeing Charlotte take a highly risky, idiotic path by dating Detective Becky Lynch but here she was now looking at a file that held Becky Lynch’s name. Bayley wasn’t done observing Becky and hadn’t even cast a judgement yet because she had nothing to judge. She was judging the fallout of Becky’s discovery that Charlotte was a criminal boss.

Surprisingly, Bayley empathised with Becky, she reminded Bayley of people that she had once met but Becky was about to have a train hit her, her entire life was going to change. Becky had two options here, she could either be better than Charlotte or she could sink to Charlotte’s level. Bayley had no idea what Becky would do but it was all part of the experiment. Just because Charlotte would inflict the trauma selfishly, didn’t mean that Becky wouldn’t be in control of her own actions. Bayley wanted to know just how much love and betrayal could change a person. 

Bayley had no doubt that the pair did indeed love each other and Charlotte wasn’t such an idiot that she would keep Becky around for sex. There was a connection between the two that was undeniable and if someone truly loved someone then they would do anything for them. Bayley had to know if a love was so strong then would she have to take out the other one to stop a worse evil from spreading. Even if the other one hadn’t done anything wrong yet. Bayley was gifted to be able to face these hard but necessary, moral choices. 

Becky’s file read:

Name: Becky Lynch  
Age: 33  
Place of birth: Dublin, Ireland Immigrated to America when she was 27.  
Occupation: Detective in Boston Police Station.  
Education: Becky only graduated high school but has climbed up the ranks in the police to get to the position where she is at through hard work.  
Personality: I have observed Becky is one of the most hard working and passionate people you could meet. Her good morals are usually fixed on helping the people around her to the best of her ability, if you get in the way of Becky she’ll be sure to take you down without a thought. Due to this her workforce sees her as a wild canon that sometimes doesn’t work but her pride gets in the way to admit it.

I have no doubt Becky is an amazing detective and I really hope Becky stays on that path but Becky is so unpredictable I have no idea whether she will stick with Charlotte or take the right path. Becky has the potential to be a real hero and I can see it in her. I even think that me and her could make a good team. I hope my future observations are a hero.  
History: Now I don’t know much about Becky’s Irish history but I did see from her immigration file that she was classed as having skills that would be useful in America. She was a detective in a small Irish town but that can’t compare to a huge city and so she was put down the ranks. Her family are highly Catholic and I believe she is herself. (Maybe her faith will sway her on the right path.)

For me to know more about her and her past I would have to travel to Ireland but unfortunately I don’t have the time. I can make predictions, however, that Becky was pushed into a highly religious family and was treated as if anything she ever did wrong was sin, something must have happened to her in her teenage years for her to want to become a detective.

Bayley read her personal notes and sighed, she really wished she had gone to Ireland to figure out more about Becky. A motive usually tells a lot about someone and it could help her to make a prediction about what Becky would do when the time came. 

Now Bayley had done with the couple, she thought about Sasha’s part in all of this. Bayley didn’t click on Sasha’s file because she hated to admit but she hadn’t finished it yet and she had nothing new to write down on it. It wasn’t necessarily that Bayley didn’t get Sasha because she did. Sasha was driven by power and she has an extremely intelligent, egotistical and narcissistic nature, it was all perfect for a criminal boss.

The checklist was endless to class Sasha as a narcissist and a psychologist probably would:

Superiority and entitlement, check.  
Exaggerated need for attention and validation, why the hell would she start a rivalry with Charlotte if she didn’t want praise that she was doing better, check.  
Perfectionism, check.  
Great need for control, double check.  
Lack of responsibility—blaming and deflecting, Sasha was quite known for being a backstabber, triple check.  
Fear of rejection and ridicule, must be Sasha’s worst nightmare.

Surprisingly, Bayley had doubts Sasha was actually a narcissist, even as she went through that pretty convincing checklist she made herself. Bayley understood it wasn’t unnatural for a narcissist to love having someone worship them, it was in their nature to feed off them to keep their ego intact so they didn’t have to think about any of their actual feelings. Bayley had looked into Sasha’s history and it was pretty clear her parents were not nice people.

There was something itching in the back of Bayley’s mind, Sasha kept around a young man. He was useful, very useful. He could deal with the streets because there were people who generally trusted him and his word. Yet he was an English white boy. His negotiating skills had helped Sasha a considerate amount and it was all because he had spent a year on the streets homeless. Sasha generally trusted this boy and what was more genuine was the empathy Sasha gave the boy. Narcissists don't show empathy and they don’t help homeless  
people gain a new life.  
Bayley wanted to cause a serious issue for Sasha, she wanted to see the way she reacted. She wanted to know everything about her because once Charlotte was dealt with she needed a new main priority and Sasha was the perfect fit. Becky would be more of her second priority as it was crucial Becky didn’t find out about Bayley, however, she had questioned whether it would be a good idea to reveal herself to Sasha. Another experiment.

There was nothing special about Charlotte but after really reading up on Sasha there was everything about Sasha Bayley could ever dream of. The perfect case study. So many questions that could be answered, all with the intention of helping the future. Her most important, personal question. Who is more evil in this world, someone who craves power or someone who needs it?

Did Sasha crave power or did she need it? Did it matter? Would Sasha be a different person if it were the latter? Bayley’s palm started to sweat and the image of a chair flashed up, she knew she was thinking too hard at this point. She let the questions go knowing that she would only be torturing herself.

Coincidentally, Bayley saw an email pop up on her screen soon after, a news report had come up with the title in big bold letters, “DOCK MURDER, IS BOSTON’S STREETS INCREASINGLY GROWING WITH MORE CRIME?

Bayley rolled her eyes, what a stupid question. Of course Boston’s streets were growing with more crime, there were two drug industries having a dick measuring concert over territory. There was a 6.7% increase in drug crime and slow increase in unemployment since last year, the statistics were all written in concrete, it would take an idiot to question whether Boston was growing more dangerous. It was why Bayley had set her sights here next.

Happily, Bayley swung round on her swivel chair and pushed herself near the back windows, a look out behind the blinds confirmed a crowded, protected crime scene. A smirk appeared on her face as she knew the cogs in her plan were starting to turn. She smartly and strategically observed the crime scene spotting a familiar redhead and Captain Phoenix, who she was quite fond of. The Captain, although strained with the increasing crime, was strong headed and a good leader. Bayley could appreciate that.

It was a risky move that Bayley had decided to place herself so close to the crime scene but she needed a quick and easy escape so that she could cover up her tracks easily. The area she had chosen to kill the man had many cameras around on the streets, shops and around buildings, while she could go in sight of a couple of them, going somewhere direct at night would raise suspicion and going in a car would be silly. The licence could be traced.

Instead Bayley opted to use the slim alleys, that had barely any lights and no cameras, behind the warehouses, near the dock. After that she could climb up and through the fences to reach her apartment block she had chosen specifically and then up the fire escape. It meant Bayley was nothing more than a shadow; in and out. 

Now the gun was a little bit more tricky, it was true that she had brought it from a Walmart for a lovely cheap price. However, the gun was a bestseller and Americans had them stored in their house like biscuits. This meant that even if the police could find the right Walmart out of seven, they’d then find that the storekeeper would tell them that loads of people had brought the gun. They would be practically useless, there would be no useful evidence. It was a wild goose chase, it was why Bayley optioned for that specific gun.

Still there was the one problem of hiding the gun... Bayley chuckled to herself, she gave the gun to a drug dealer part of the street war; she posted the gun through his door. She had been observing the man and all he was, was an uneducated lackey who would believe whatever anyone told him. He was also in favour of Charlotte’s business so it was easy to impersonate as someone important to Charlotte. Bayley told him to protect that gun in the interests of Charlotte and like a dog he would.

Leaving the bullet in Grant’s head was Bayley being cocky in some ways but to be honest she didn’t want to send the detectives on a wild goose chase. She needed them on other leads, all part of the plan. Becky would obviously be on Hugo’s case like she intended but while Becky was doing that other detectives were working on finding more about Grant.

Speaking of Becky she left that little note on her desk after killing Grant, the police station was usually low security at night, which meant all she had to do was climb through the vents, drop the note down and off she popped. She then cut a minute of CCTV footage that showed the paper falling, it was like magic. The paper was really just another experiment for Becky but back on track.

It was a search for Bayley to find Grant but after checking herself into rehab for two weeks she found out more about the man. Charlotte knew him well but that wasn’t good enough because for the past two years the man was a ghost, only now had he come back to Boston. It was no coincidence, Charlotte had called him back without telling anybody, even her own brother. The police would soon find out why...

Yet, Bayley was smart; she was using Hugo as not only a ploy in her plan but a smoke screen in front of Charlotte. Bayley knew Becky was going to ask Charlotte about the man after she found out about Ric in his criminal file, why wouldn’t she? In turn Charlotte would be too wrapped up in guilt to care about whose body was lying in a morgue. A fatal mistake by Charlotte.

Grant Hearl was more important than people would think. He wasn’t a guilty man but he needed to die in order for Bayley to succeed.

Bayley smiled at her plan, it was only a slight stroke of genius by her and it was going to get better today. Her celebration alarm had even been set for ten o’clock in the night.

Still Bayley was looking out her window making sure everything was going to plan and it was for the most part. Especially the police part but something had caught Bayley’s eye in the crowd. A person was wearing an AC/DC hoodie with their hood up and she had recognised that same hoodie before. Bayley frowned, Faris was stupid yet smart to be putting himself so close to the crime scene.

Again Bayley knew the boy would be crawling around the streets but she hadn’t anticipated for him to actually come to the crime scene and for what reason she didn’t know. It was exciting though, she liked when people actually used their brain. It had even excited her more when the boy started to follow Rhea Rhipley of all people. Bayley found Rhea to be useful. She was naive and loved to talk about Becky, maybe Faris had seen the same thing in her. Bayley had already made plans for Faris but this would make it ten times interesting.

Finally, Bayley got herself up from her chair, showered, dressed and ate her breakfast, a good start to the morning with a bright chip on her shoulder. Then, Bayley opened up her storage closet and as if it was the most normalist thing in the world packed up her sniper rifle into a box case, keeping it tightly sealed and ready for the later part of the day. She wouldn’t be requiring anything else as today was about keeping surveillance and making sure everything went to plan.

A casual walk down the stairs, Bayley greeted any of her other neighbours that went past and they greeted her back with a warm smile as if they’d known each other for years. At the ground floor Bayley saw a signature smile on an old lady named Dorothy, she quickly called Bayley over and Bayley obliged, “So what are you doing today darling,”

“Oh you know me, always busy with business,” Bayley said with a smile.

“I’m too old to be doing that stuff now but I hope everything works out for you. Be careful though love I saw that awful crime scene out just down the street, if you see anybody suspicious you run. Do you hear me?” The woman had a stern look on her face all in the name of protecting.

Bayley chuckled and replied, “I’m sure I can take care of myself,”

“You better or I’ll have to kill you myself,”

Bayley laughed with a little dark humour, “Not if I kill you first,”

“Oh I’d like to see you try love, I’ve still got a little sprite left in me,” She gave a little fiery wink to end her conversation.

Bayley found the woman to be quite amusing, “Well take care and you keep yourself safe,” 

After Bayley’s meeting with the woman, she was walking over to the car park. Bayley didn’t own a car, instead she drove around in a tactical van, one look into the back was enough to incriminate her, which was why the van was off the radar and highly expensive. Bayley jumped into the back and booted up her computers, every single camera in a fifty mile radius Bayley had access to, how she got this type of equipment wasn’t important right now. However, she was quite literally Watchdog, surveying her targets.

Later in the day Bayley had set off to work, where she planned on meeting Rhea. The woman was still useful to Bayley and could give her some details on the progress of Grant’s case. Rhea entered the coffee shop with a tired look, which was understandable with her tough job but it instantly lit up when she saw Bayley. 

“Hey Bayley how’s your day been,”

“Em progressive but I mean all I’m doing is serving coffee,”

Rhea gave her a nudge, “You don’t give yourself enough credit sometimes, people need their coffee. So the normal Bay,”

Bayley got to work on Rhea’s normal coffee and started to make a more convenient conversation, “So I saw on the news about that dock murder, anything interesting,”

“Oh that case, well I mean the guy hasn’t really been seen for a couple years but I heard some detectives talking about him being a possible illegal gun dealer. It would make sense with all that gang war going on but even more dangerous for us,”

“Obviously but I know you’ll do good,” Bayley was caught off guard when she turned to see Faris in the window. Bayley smirked, a quick plan forming in her head. She guessed she didn’t give that kid enough credit but credit where credit is due. Now all she could think about was moving on to Sasha.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was my introduction to Bayley, whose character I'm more excited to right about and now that I see the story is close to hitting a 1000 hits I'd love to know your thoughts on the story so far and Bayley's character. What is your first thoughts on her so far? What do you think she's up to?
> 
> Thanks for reading,  
> Tabitha.


	9. The calm before the storm

“That’s quite a nasty cut you got on your cheek there,” For around ten minutes Rhea had been wiping Faris’ cuts with alcohol that he instinctively hissed to. Faris couldn’t help but look as Rhea concentrated on every inch of his face, making sure there wasn’t even a smudge of blood left. For many it would be an uncomfortable silence but Faris was pretty happy to just indulge in what the woman had to offer.

“Well I did smash my face into a floor, I’m not so surprised,” Faris laughed and looked over to the woman who didn’t openly laugh but a flash of a smile, she quickly hid, could be seen. At least Faris knew he had a chance. Although he was pretty confused on what chance.

Faris saw the woman start to move around a little more indicating that she was nearly done, it was now Faris had to make a move, “So I didn’t quite catch your name, I mean I told you mine,”

In all honesty, Rhea had felt like a robot attending to the man. There was no conversation and all Rhea was doing was cleaning some cuts that may or may not need some stitches. She hadn’t even thought of looking at the man in any overt way than to check for the severity of the cuts or any other obvious injuries. So when she said the statement, she was actually intrigued about the deep scar on the man’s cheek she had noticed the minute she saw him.

It was clear that the man hadn’t picked up on that though and quickly changed the subject towards herself. Rhea stopped attending to the wound and looked at the smiling man, it was clear he was interested in more than just meeting for one time. However, for the sake of being polite she answered his question, “Rhea,”

“Well I did tell you mine on the floor but I think you didn’t notice,” Faris laughed back.

Rhea quickly felt a wave of embarrassment, even slightly turning red in the ears, “Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to ignore you,”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind. My name’s Faris so you know,” Faris studied Rhea’s expressions, it looked as if she was really sincere and didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Faris wanted to class this as a weakness but couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, it wasn’t her fault necessarily that her personality swayed her to being so empathetic. Nevertheless, he also had a job to do.

Awkwardly, Rhea turned around quickly grabbing a dry tea towel, when she really didn’t need to, she had already finished attending to the cut. As much as Rhea loved helping people she had never really stuck around to know more about them. Even as a private investigator the people who hired her were only really interested in knowing if their partner was cheating on one another. Yet, it paid her bills and Rhea was just looking to do something more than be the plot device for a one-up game. 

So instead Rhea asked the same question she had before too scared to actually start a topical conversation, “You know you didn’t answer my question before,” Faris raised an eyebrow, he was pretty sure he had paid attention to her completely; he needed to, yet he let Rhea continue, “That scar on your cheek, it’s deep and wasn’t healed with stitches,”

Faris felt a wave of despair and slightly touched it with his fingertips, a glimpse of remembrance on how he got it. The only ever time anyone had ever really had actually asked about it was when Sasha came to his bench and gave him a new life, everybody else he had come across in the last year simply ignored it as the normal or teased him for his looks. Faris had been able to shut that part of him away and he really didn’t want to open back up that can of worms.

With a fake but convincing cheerful voice Faris smiled right back at Rhea, “Oh this thing, nothing. My brother accidentally pushed me into a glass table when I was 10 and it broke, we were in Scotland 50 miles away from a hospital so he did a shabby job of cleaning it,”

Rhea frowned not quite believing his story as much as he looked convincing but went along with it anyway. She’d just met the guy. Rhea was just about ready to send the guy on his way so she could go home after a day at work, it wasn’t like she was getting called out for anything, “Well then I’ve cleaned all those cuts for you, just make sure you put some new dressing on them; I didn’t do a shabby job like your brother,”

Faris let out a laugh really starting to like the person he’d just met but what he really needed was for her to keep talking. He still needed information and he needed to keep her here. He had limited time and he was pretty sure Sasha would call soon as her last resort. Rhea was turning to leave but Faris quickly called out, “Hey wait,” surprisingly Rhea turned around without a problem, “Look I know it would be kinda creepy for me to ask this but we're in a coffee shop, there’s tables, it’s open till ten and you’re hot. Why not have an impromptu date?”

Rhea looked up and down at Faris, he wasn’t kidding. Rhea really found the man charming but this was definitely a reach to her, yet more of a happy reach. She was definitely a workaholic but for once she could actually be living her life, “Well I mean, em. I guess but I literally just met you because you fell on your face, “ Rhea couldn’t help but chuckle at that as Faris laughed along and rolled his eyes.

“So is that yeah, “ Faris put his eyes out as if he were praying and Rhea really couldn’t help but like the man even more.

“Yeah, why not,” Faris couldn’t help but feel bad on the inside the amount of joy coming from Rhea right now was special but once he had the information from her, he was inevitably going to leave her hanging. Still, his loyalty remained to Sasha and that was never going to change. For now he would partake in the conversation and get the information he needed.

Rhea leaded the way out and gave a warm smile to Bayley, “Another one of my normal's Bayley and then whatever he wants,” Rhea gave a wink to Faris who stood with his mouth wide open, “I would've paid for my own coffee,”

“Yeah well you smashed your face into the floor, I’m paying for your coffee,” Bayley looked on to the two with a keen eye on Faris. The two were sharing what the British like to call ‘banter’ and both their laughs and smiles looked genuine. Clearly, Bayley wasn’t giving Faris enough credit for his acting skills or maybe Faris was being extremely unprofessional, it had happened to Charlotte.

“So you two are sticking around for now,” Bayley looked as Rhea’s face lit up but again looked more sternly at Faris whose body language was showing a different emotion, he was increasingly blinking, his eyes not fully looking at Bayley and his shoulder had slouched just a little. They were all telltale signs of dishonesty but he was a good enough actor to keep himself from sweating and plaster on a barbie smile. Rhea wasn’t going to notice. Though Bayley had to ask the question why did he feel like that in the first place.

Faris answered for Rhea this time, “Yep and I’ll have just a latte please,”

Bayley casually got to work on making the coffee but kept looking specifically at Faris but not too much so he would notice. The two were carrying on talking like any normal people and it intrigued Bayley on what information Faris really wanted from Rhea. Sure he wanted to know about the note but he probably wanted to go further than the note now he had got himself in a comfortable position. Maybe he wanted to know more about Becky or maybe he wanted to know more about Grant’s case, the sky’s the limit but Rhea just simply wasn’t in that position to give away that information. 

In all honesty Rhea was good but she was also the last person in the police station for anybody to give information to. Bayley wasn’t friends with Rhea to find more about the inner workings, all she wanted to know from Rhea was more about Becky. Again though maybe Bayley was underestimating Rhea, maybe she did know more.

With a warm smile Bayley handed over the coffee to the pair and carried on like normal, “So Faris I haven’t seen you around here. Are you new to the area, most of the locals come around here?”  
Faris pulled on a face but decided to be friendly with Bayley. After all Rhea was probably friends with her and he wanted to build the trust so he needed to play nice with her friends, “I live in Boston just went for a stroll and needed a coffee,”

Rhea rolled her eyes, “Come on you make yourself sound like the most boring person in the world, what made you come to this specific coffee shop,”

Bayley hid away her smirk but hyped up Rhea’s statement, “Yep come on tell us,”

Faris stood shocked for a moment, it wasn’t like he could tell them he was basically stalking Rhea. What he needed was a good story made up in a quick amount of time, “Okay I’ll tell you guys. So my boss sent me out to this area because she heard about that dock murder. She thinks that her security is at risk, so sent me out here just to make sure no bomb goes off or something. She can be a little entitled sometimes. I decided I’d rather not and came to a coffee shop,”

Rhea perked up at the story, “So your boss thinks the world revolves around her then,”

Faris laughed trying to make his story seem ridiculous but not something that needed to be questioned again or open up into more leading conversations, “Yeah a little bit,”

Bayley on the other hand interpreted his story with more truth and found it quite interesting he optioned for Sasha to think her security was at risk. Obviously, Bayley knew Sasha caught onto things very quickly but she hadn’t expected her to make the judgement this quick. Of course she played along with the laughs, “So then Faris what do you do for work,”

At this point Faris was getting fed up of Bayley asking questions, what he really needed was to start his ‘date’ with time running out, “Security wherever needed really,”

“Well then for a security guard it’s hilarious you just happened to fall on your face,” Bayley stared daggers at Faris which added a little bit more tension in the atmosphere, she could see the boy even fidgeting with his hands. He was uncomfortable and he wouldn’t be able to hide it from someone like Bayley. To spice things up a little bit more, Bayley laughed into the silence clearly startling Faris, “I’m just messing with you. Gotta look after Rhea my dude,”

“Oh yeah..yeah,” Faris trembled on his words knowing that that encounter could have gone a lot smoother. Something about the women with a joyful personality and bubbly smile just wasn’t sitting right with him. It was almost like Bayley had judged him harshly already without getting to know him. However, he reminded himself that this was a one time thing and what he really needed was to be getting a move on.

Fortunately, Rhea chimed in also getting fed up of not getting to know the guy instead of having her friend integrate him, “Come on Bayley leave him alone I’ve just met the guy and I actually kind of like him,”

Faris physically blushed at the confession and he couldn’t help but turn his face to the floor, he was quite literally going to abandon her in an hour or so. He had no idea what had gotten into him and it was unprofessional of him.

Bayley nodded along, she was really enjoying this game, “Fine. Go on then you two, go and get a table,”

Without hesitation Faris took himself away from the friend and turned on the charm to one hundred; he took one quick glance at his phone and panicked when he realised he had only half an hour to get the information out of Rhea. He internally cursed himself for being so careless when his boss was counting on him to get that information.

For around twenty minutes the pair had been having normal conversations that people would have on a date. Favourite foods, drinks. Faris was counting on Rhea liking him so much that she would give the important piece of information without thinking. He could see that Rhea hadn’t really wanted to stop talking at all and it had made him all more confident but again he couldn’t help the ache in the back of his neck telling him this was wrong. It was and he could see it.

Finally, Faris felt confident enough to bring Rhea into the conversation without him presenting any red flags, “So then you’re a police officer,”

“Yep but I was a private investigator back in Australia. I love the job but you know when you get that feeling your not being challenged enough,”

Faris found it interesting about Rhea being a PI, she must seriously be fed of being treated so poorly and it was something that he could use to his advantage, “Not really. My boss can be a little bit pushy at times,”

“Mines the opposite and then don’t get me started on the detective,”

“Go on, I’m listening,”

Rhea hesitated for a moment, she could have been doing something she shouldn’t have for all she knew but she felt a warm feeling towards the guy. Maybe it was trust, it was something she hadn’t had with a lot of people, so she went further, “Well this detective she was like me. She also wasn’t from America. Back in Ireland she was the best detective they had but when she came to America it wasn’t enough and she had to start again.”

“She knows how good I am but she refuses to let me in on anything else even when everyone respects her in that precinct to make the right decisions. Just this morning a note just magically appeared on her desk, bearing in mind she was busy with the dock murder, I would have investigated it for her but no. We get anonymous tips all the time and most are mainly untrustworthy so she could have of offered this to me easily,”

Faris made a luck of a conflicting nature towards Rhea, there was no way he could have given her a straight answer if he wanted to find out more, “I mean I’m sure you have all the ability in the world and that detective is most likely underestimating you but on the other hand you could be walking into something dangerous,”

“I know...I know but I want to impress somebody,”

“I mean how dangerous was the note really appearing,”

“Just a time and place really but being a PI I know what I’m doing,” Faris knew he was getting closer but just a statement like that was not proof enough he needed to know and time was ticking.

“And you're sure it’s not a trap,”

Rhea held her head in her hands, Faris was making good points that she couldn’t deny. Her gut instincts though were still wired to do whatever needed to be done, even if it meant going to that warehouse, “What if it was really helpful though,”

“You just said yourself you get loads of anonymous tips, so answer me this. What about that tip is making your gut instinct think you need to do something,”

“These street wars there everywhere and I..I just think where they tipped, a gun war could happen over something stupid and the person who tipped was someone scared who has to partake,”

Faris didn’t show he was visibly confused but he was, what Rhea was saying made perfect sense and after getting to know her he couldn’t help but trust her word. Maybe he was reaching too far, nobody at the warehouse tonight was untrustworthy so for anybody to tip the police seemed highly unrealistic. Plus a quick glance to the clock and he knew Sasha needed the information now before she made her way to the warehouse.

“Yeah I understand, I just need to pop to the loo, won’t be a minute,”

Rhea couldn’t help but make a light-hearted joke, “Caffeine it does that to you,”

In the men’s bathroom Faris had quickly dialled Sasha’s phone that he was privileged to actually have. On the other end Faris was quick to hear relief coming from the speaker. Faris had never heard Sasha sound so vulnerable, “I got information but I gotta be quick,”

“Thank God, I really needed that right now, so if it needs to be said quickly. Safe or not,”

Faris had been dreading this moment. What he could be telling her was the right or wrong information and he didn’t want it to be the wrong one. He had to go with his gut, just like Rhea would and that was, that what his boss was doing was perfectly safe, “Safe,”

“Good I’ll see you there,” Just like that Sasha hung up her phone and a huge wave of relief sank off of Faris’ shoulders. Feeling refreshed Faris’ walked out of the bathroom getting ready to say goodbye to Rhea but he quickly noticed she was gone.

Bayley stood at the counter amused, she’d just sent out the phone call to the Head of Investigations and already Rhea was getting calls about it. Her plan was really a masterpiece and to top it all off, Faris could have changed the entire course of it but he must have caught some naiveness from Rhea. A smirk plastered on her face when she saw that Faris was coming directly towards her, now the real game was starting.

“Em Bayley do you know where Rhea went,” Faris looked concerned and almost sad in a way. It was clear to Bayley he had caught some feelings.

“Oh she’s just outside, got a phone call from her boss,” All while Bayley was talking to Faris she was keeping all his attention on her face because just in his back pocket was his phone and just like that Bayley was able to swipe him of it. Keeping her hands behind her back she swiped the back of the phone off and took the battery out, finally swiping the back on and hastily putting it back in his back pocket before he could even notice her hand moved in the first place.

“Ah, is it important,” Faris had suddenly felt on edge, had he made a mistake.

“Something about needing to be at a warehouse. Although just so you know she doesn’t want to go, I think she wants to stay with you instead of going back to work,”

Faris’ entire body tensed, he couldn’t even process all that Bayley had said, never mind what he needed to do with Rhea. Before he could even get another thought in, an incredibly happy Rhea burst in through the door and Faris couldn’t do anything about it. 

“The warehouse was actually something important Faris but you’ve been better than anybody to me in that police force so I said I didn’t want to go,” Rhea went even closer to Faris and held his hand, “Thank you so much,”

Faris had only one thought. What the fuck had he done.


	10. Let's get ready to rumble

Faris had been internally panicking for the last thirty seconds and hadn’t even acknowledged the “thank you” Rhea had given him because right now none of that was important. What was important was the fact he was sending his boss and most loyal friend into a police trap. He could have said something but instead he decided to keep his mouth shut and now he was paying the steep and guilty price.

The one thing in his mind that made sense was that he needed to get out of that coffee shop and away from Rhea. After all she was the reason he had got into this mess in the first place. Sure he could call Sasha and tell her not to go but where would that leave his and her relationship. Sasha trusted nobody and yet she trusted him to make sure her safety was in order and he couldn’t even do that.

Rhea had become concerned by the pale look on Faris’ face, he looked as if he was staring at her but his mind was in a completely different place. His eyes held a different kind of emotion that Rhea couldn’t quite understand. She had no idea whether the “thank you” had shocked him so much it had left him in this situation. She was almost worried he would faint on her. Instead Rhea tried to get the attention of Faris properly, “Hey, Faris…”

No answer…

Faris wanted to shout, he wanted to scream and tear this whole place down. He was convinced more in his head that Sasha was going to throw him away, maybe even reveal his illegal immigrant status and force him to go back to England. Back to the streets. Sasha didn’t tolerate anything but perfection and she wasn’t scared to stab someone in the back.

“Faris,”

Faris just couldn’t stop thinking about everything that could go bad for him. His last drastic thought, Sasha was just going to kill him.

“FARIS!”

A sudden jolt of adrenaline had surged through Faris and instead of overthinking he looked at the woman that had quite literally shouted in his face. He expected it to be the face of someone he wanted to hate. He expected it to be Rhea but that wasn’t the case. Bayley was shouting in his face and Rhea was standing behind the bar grabbing him a bottle of water.

Bayley looked on at Faris with curiosity, from her observation he was experiencing a type of panic attack and she had multiple guesses over what it could be over. The most simple answer would be the fact Sasha could get caught but that wouldn’t make sense, Faris hadn’t even found out about his non working phone yet.

What was going on his mind was more embedded and personal and Bayley had to admit she was excited at the prospect of what it could be. 

Faris looked at Bayley dazed, again she had that infectious smile that could just turn the room. Bayley quickly spoke to him with a kind reassuring voice, “That was quite a panic you had there, are you alright dude,”

Rushing in with water was Rhea, who almost forced it into Faris’ hand but before he could get a word in she cowered away, back behind the bar, leaving just Bayley and Faris alone. Rhea did want to say something but after she tried to get him out of that state she was blaming herself, meaning Bayley had to take over. It only made Rhea more guilty that it took only one try for Bayley to get him out of that state.

Faris took notice of Rhea’s action but before he could think Bayley was already talking to him again, “Why don’t you sit down?”

Faris took a deep breath but complied, he was exhausted mentally, whatever Bayley was offering he would probably take. Again Bayley was there to comfort him with words, “I can imagine what’s going in your head is probably complicated so take all the time you need,”

“I’m sorry,” Faris choked up without even realising it. It wasn’t meant for them.

Bayley studied the out of the blue reaction and saw it wasn’t meant for her at all, maybe a certain blue-haired person, “It’s not for me is it,”

Faris turned to look at Bayley, “No. How could you tell anyway?”

“I’ve studied psychology,”

“So why the hell are you working as a barista,”

“Things got complicated,” Bayley psychically flinched but made sure the conversation didn’t become about her.

Faris took the sign and left it be. In his head he didn’t want to talk to Bayley and he especially didn’t want to talk to Rhea but it wasn’t like he could up and leave yet, after all Rhea was a police officer and could still connect the dots. He had to play along if he wanted to escape this situation, “Why isn’t she talking to me?”

Bayley found it funny how both her and Faris were playing a character which left Rhea the odd one out but the advantage for Bayley was that Faris didn’t have a clue. 

However, Bayley also needed to get out of there so she could make her way down to the warehouse. If she couldn’t stick with Faris then she could at least mess around with him in her closing moments, “You know Rhea is my friend and as her friend I have to look out for her, so you have to promise me you're not gonna do anything harmful. She likes you but she thinks that she hurt you and something tells me a certain blue haired woman is the real problem,”

Instinctively, Faris’ head shot right up and his jaw fell agape, a huge amount of shock left him unable to react and he was already too late to catch Bayley by the wrist as she swiftly lifted herself from the chair, turned her head and cockily winked at him while speedily walking away. Bayley quickly asked Rhea, “Rhea could you lock up, I got a family emergency,” and then threw keys over to a startled woman, who barely managed to catch.

Before Rhea could even answer, “Yeah sure,” Bayley had already left the premises and Faris couldn’t quite believe everything that was going on. His head was ready to explode and he had no idea how Bayley had known about Sasha. With all these problems that were happening at a pace he couldn’t control, Rhea was still looking at him. 

Faris was just about ready to take all his anger out on her but his self control made sure he stayed firmly to the seat. His mind may have been exploding but he still had a brain and it was one that needed to get out as fast as he could without making any trouble.

Rhea was the first to get a word in, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry if I did anything. I’m sorry,”

Faris sensed the pain in Rhea’s voice. It was sincere and it was an apology that many people were after but Faris wasn’t after an apology he just wanted to get the hell out of there and tell Sasha to turn back. Otherwise he was afraid of what he might say to the girl he’d just met and caused him to make a blunder in his work.

“Look Rhea I liked tonight but I need to go home and think,”

Rhea kept her eyes to the floor. She’d ruined something that was going well and now she blamed herself. All she could do was let him go, lock up the place and wallow in self pity.

“Yeah you do whatever you need,”

Unintentionally, Faris looked into Rhea’s eyes, he wanted to hate her so badly but something about how he was hurting her hurt him. Rhea didn’t have to blame herself because it wasn’t her fault, Faris should have never tried to use her in the first place but there was nothing he could do now, he had his exit and he had to take it, “Maybe I’ll see you another time,”

“Yeah,” the motivation had been taken out of Rhea, which left a small minimal voice.

Without another look Faris left and sighed with a breath of relief. At least if he wasn’t looking at her then he didn’t have to think about it. Hastily, Faris got out his phone knowing he needed to call Sasha right now before it was too late.

One press on the phone, nothing.

Another press on the phone, nothing.

Holding down the press on the phone, nothing.

With each press Faris grew increasingly anxious, he swore that he had a fully charged phone and now when he needed it most it wasn’t working, “Work you piece of shit!”

He slid off the back of his phone and curled his hands into fists when he saw the missing battery. For the first time in the night he screamed in anger, “BAYLEY!”

Reactively, he threw the phone to the wall and watched as it smashed into tiny bits. He slowly fell to the floor on his knees and grabbed his hair pulling on it in a complete rage. His screams in anger were mixed with tears from the shame he felt. He was sending Sasha to hell and it was all his fault.

In that split second he made a choice, he still had ten minutes to go before the clock turned ten so he ran. He ran as fast as he could. In the back of his mind a haunting voice was living rent free. Bayley was telling him to “run” because if he didn’t Sasha was going to kill him.

Meanwhile, Charlotte had made her way down the building compartment to reach the car park. Charlotte remembered when she first met Becky and how she had the most out of place car in the building, it was always a fond memory. Arguably now Becky had a better car but it was still nowhere near as expensive as the cars parked in the building. Charlotte felt bad that her neighbours would give her snobby looks but she couldn’t help but smile at Becky who didn’t give a damn.

Ever since Charlotte had left her apartment she had felt the weight of dread and guilt on her shoulders for two specific reasons. One she had just been through a roller coaster of a day from Becky asking her specific questions to be guilty about the relationship all over again. Secondly, the meeting Charlotte was attending was very important for future endeavours and she had only one chance with Sasha to make a mutual agreement work, otherwise her business could start taking hits that couldn’t be repaired.

Charlotte had no doubt Sasha held a lot of cards but Charlotte also had to remember who the hell she was. She had been making secretive moves now for a couple of months. Moves she hadn’t even told David about. If she wanted to honour her dad's legacy then she had to get back territory that she had lost to Sasha and offer a small amount in return. Although Charlotte wasn’t that stupid, it wasn’t going to play out as smoothly as that.

Parked in her specific place was the car David had gifted her as a sympathy present more than anything. It was a Mercedes S65 AMG, a fine car that Charlotte had had her eyes on. David had brought it for her after the business started to collapse as he felt bad she had to be the one to deal with it. Charlotte hated him for it but she took in nonetheless. She would be stupid not to, it was beautiful.

A ten minute drive to the warehouse and she was greeted by her professional security personnel who had been loyal to the business for around fifteen years ever since her dad realised having street thugs protect him was stupid. The leader of the group, Steve, who was a bald man with tattooed sleeves and large muscles to compensate, walked towards Charlotte with a stern look, ready to talk business with her.

“Good evening Miss Flair,”

Charlotte sighed that all her business partners were never going to call her by her first name. If she had to be honest being always addressed in a formal way was exhausting and dehumanising in a way. It reminded her that her entire life was all about business, at least Sasha had the decency to call her by her first name.

“Good evening Steve, any problems with security? Or is the meeting all good to go?”

“Nothing to report Miss Flair but having Miss Banks’ security looking with complete intent is obviously a scare tactic. I believe her security are hired mercenaries and some even former army personnel,”

Charlotte understood Sasha took her security very seriously but sometimes she really went overboard and those army soldiers were taking part in criminal activities, which they swore they would fight against. Sasha was a new kind of low, “Sasha is a piece of work that’s for sure. Speak of the devil, is she her yet?”

“No Miss, she hasn’t arrived yet,”

“Of course, she’s late as well,”

Charlotte squeezed her fists tight knowing how much Sasha was going to get on her nerves tonight. Sometimes she wished she could shout and scream but unfortunately she was the only person in her business who could remain calm in the face of adversity. 

Charlotte had been losing her patients for around five minutes standing outside with Steve waiting for the eventual arrival of Sasha, whether she would even come was questionable. There was only ten minutes until ten o’clock and Sasha was pulling this bullshit.

Finally Charlotte took a relieving breath, two blacked out SUV’s were driving in front and back of a convertible blue Pagani Huayra Roadster, the make was undeniably luxury and the model was a craftsman’s greatest work. It was a car that was screaming of wealth and Sasha was using it to show off no doubt. Sasha had no roof so it was easy for Charlotte to see her with a bored face and huge sunglasses covering her face, Charlotte reminded herself to keep her temper intact.

Reacting, Charlotte shook her head, sighed and put her hand up to her head clearly unimpressed. She whispered under her breath, “God I hate that woman,” then proceeded to actually talk to Sasha, “You’re late,”

Sasha was laughing underneath all her bored exterior, if she was in the presence of Charlotte tonight then she was going to do everything in her power to annoy her starting with the lavish entrance and fashionably late business arrival, “Last time I checked Charlotte, the meeting is starting at ten, which is in ten minutes. Therefore I’m ten minutes early,”

“Whatever just get in the warehouse,” Charlotte really had no patience for Sasha. She wanted to do this meeting then go back to Becky. That’s all she wanted.

Sasha looked offended but didn’t take off her sunglasses. She placed one hand out signalling for Charlotte to go and used a childish mocking voice to annoy her even more, “Then proceed my majesty,”

Sasha whispered under her breath, “God I hate that woman,” and watched as her car was driven back to her home. She wasn’t going to leave the same way she came, that would be too much of a giveaway.

Becky pulled into the street the FBI was using as a hidden blind spot to any security at the warehouse. There were around twenty SWAT officers all dressed in protective gear carrying Colt M4 Carbines all waiting to get into eventual combat. At the front of them all was Special Agent Hunter Helmsley with a no nonsense look on his face.

Becky had been thinking a lot since she found the bomb, after all she could have prevented a future terrorist plot and something like that was in order for a celebration. Her day was going to get even better as she was about to catch two drug lords in the act, yet she wasn’t feeling as happy as she could have been. Something seemed easy about all of this, to solve this case, Becky knew it could take up to two years to figure out something like that. 

However, she couldn’t just sit and think about it, there were still important matters to attend to so she got herself out of her car and proceeded to open the back of her car. Inside was her bulletproof vest that she quickly put on. She hated how heavy it was but compared to the SWAT team she was majorly under dressed. Finally, she placed a pistol in her belt and made her way towards Hunter.

Another thought on Becky’s head was the offer to join the FBI, it was something that yes she could see herself wanting but it would mean leaving the community role she had in Boston. Captain Phoenix had praised her on multiple occasions for being the best detective there and there was no argument that Becky had caught many criminals in her career, and what about Matt, who she loved like a brother. She hated the idea that she was being selfish for maybe wanting something more.

Hunter noticed Becky making her way towards him but he didn’t change the look on his face, not until the people in the warehouse were arrested, “Detective Lynch, were almost ready to make our arrests, any suggestions,”

Becky looked visibly confused, “Why are you asking me. I’m not FBI and I'm not in control,”

“No you’re not but I want to know if you could be. So again any suggestions,”

It had knocked Becky’s confidence down to be asked the question without even thinking about the perimeter at all. She had no idea but it seemed wrong to tell the Agent that, “Em no as long as there’s snipers surveying the area then I see no problem,”

“There’s actually only one sniper we were able to sneak in otherwise security would have caught us, we don’t have full surveillance. A lot of our mission is blind Detective and for some reason security were protecting the back of the warehouse very carefully,”

“Out of interest, how good are the security,”

“We’ve observed two different security personnel, one is a professional security agency and the other is a mercenary agency, some of them are even former army soldiers. The people in there obviously take their security very seriously,”

Becky was shocked at how high profile these people could be and the situation she was getting herself into.

Hunter carried on, “Anyway I’m going to do a quick briefing and everybody is going to be getting into position, so you better be listening,”

Hunter didn’t mean to seem intimidating but Becky was pretty intimidated by the guy, his voice held an authority over people that was undeniable. 

Lastly, Hunter walked towards the front of the big group of people and Becky listened from the side still feeling out of place from the FBI. She was the only one who wasn’t wearing an FBI badge. It was pretty clear from the vest she wore. Hunter began his speech with complete authority, 

“As you all know we are her to arrest two suspected organised crime bosses. We have only one sniper to cover us so be warned you could be hit, which is why if security even makes a move to grab their weapons you use your fire to subdue them. I don’t want anybody to make a move to shoot to kill unless you are in absolute danger and it is necessary. If anybody here is trigger happy then I want your badge right now and I don’t to see you in my sight again,”

“One of the suspected criminals in there is Charlotte Flair…” Hunter went to raise a picture of Charlotte and Becky stood in horror, her eyes growing wide and rage surging through her blood. Becky didn’t even realise she was reacting until she was ripping the image of the person she loved out of the hands of the Agent.

Immediately, Hunter saw how angry Becky had gotten and was confused at the sudden outburst. The rest of the team looked completely confused but didn’t question, it wasn’t their job. Hunter grabbed Becky by the wrist and pulled her to the side, by then she had tears running down her eyes.

“You’ve got the wrong person. It’s not Charlotte, don’t blame her just because she’s Ric’s daughter,” Becky felt a sudden protectiveness for her girlfriend and couldn’t help but spill out her heart to Hunter.

“And how do you know this,” Hunter was almost certain that he was about to arrest Charlotte for more than just drugs but now Becky was making this very complicated.

“I’m dating Charlotte, I’m going to ask her to marry me,”

Instantly Hunter opened his mouth in shock. He knew that Becky’s personal life was none of his business but he couldn’t help but be surprised. He also knew though that Becky was about to get her heart broken in there and there was nothing he could do about it, “Becky if this is to personal then you don’t have to go in there,”

Bitterly, Becky bit back, “Why are you acting like it’s Charlotte, it’s not. I’m going in there to prove you wrong,”

There really was nothing Hunter could do for Becky now, “The make sure you’re ready we're going in five minutes,”

Becky didn’t even bother to reply, she nodded her head. She wanted to prove everybody wrong now more than ever.

It had taken Bayley a considerable amount of time to get through the most minimal guards she could, which was by choking them out and placing them in the shadows but she had finally reached the warehouse without detection. She knew there was one FBI sniper but it was in a place where they couldn’t see the entrance, never mind the side of the warehouse. The sniper wouldn’t be able to help out in any way and the FBI weren’t about to kill guards to get a better place.

Bayley had scoped out the warehouse and the guards for a while and knew her way in was through the fire escape that had a guard placed just outside the door. There was no way Bayley would be able to take him out from behind and any other form of combat would only attract attention, so she had to get him in a different way. 

With a smirk Bayley hid just behind the staircase and pulled out her phone, with one tap she released a message to the guard with a simple text, “Sheila and Amelia have just been in a car crash u need to get to the hospital right now. They think Amelia might die, Carl,” Bayley almost laughed at the instant panic from the man who rushed down the stairs and out of sight and min, Bayley was a little bit harsh to say his daughter was going to die.

Bayley was now free to walk through the front door without a single person knowing, in a position that was not good for anybody. Like a kid at Christmas, Bayley was finally able to get her toy out, a Dragunov SVD, a sniper rifle that was able to take shots at a moving target and that was something that she needed. The model was Russian but she was able to get it through the black market.

Shortly, Bayley had set up her position and now all she had to do was wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ten chapters and we've finally reached ten o'clock. Sasha and Charlotte are about to get a surprise, Becky's in denial and Bayley has a sniper. What could go wrong.


	11. I am the worst

Sasha had looked at Charlotte’s set up and grimaced; Sasha was expecting a comfy seat after a long day but instead she was welcomed to an empty, dirty, dull and ill-scented warehouse where she was expected to sit in the middle of the room at a metal table with two fold up chairs on opposite ends. The only thing on the table was a map of Boston and nothing else. With the conditions Sasha had to endure she would expect that she would at least be offered hand sanitiser.

In all honesty, Sasha expected Charlotte to have a little bit more respect for herself. The set up was what someone who was being interrogated had to withstand and if Charlotte thought for a second she could interrogate her then she had another thing coming. All in all the setting shouldn’t be used for a professional meeting on the future of the city because the two of them were the ones who truly had the power in Boston.

Discontented, Charlotte looked up and down at Sasha and her petty attitude towards the entire thing. Charlotte had a lot more things on her mind then worrying about where the fuck they were sitting. Tired of looking at Sasha hesitate to even step one more foot in the warehouse, Charlotte immediately took her place in her chair and placed her hands out in a sarcastic, welcoming manner, “Are we starting or do we have a problem Sasha?”

Sasha couldn’t believe Charlotte could just walst through the door, sit in a metal chair and practically put her feet up on the table when her entire life she was treated like royalty. While mainly having lots of power, Sasha had also removed herself from normal society so that sitting in metal chairs wasn’t the normal. Putting on a face, Sasha braved herself to move closer and took a deep breath as she heroically sacrificed herself to sit on the cold, germ-ridden metal.

Charlotte really couldn’t believe what she was watching. It was ridiculous. Sasha was taking petty to a new level of heights and Charlotte was practically raised to look down upon anyone who worked for a living, “Are you finished?”

Keeping her temper intact, Sasha looked at Charlotte with disapproval, “And I thought you would have more respect for yourself,”

“No Sasha, I’m busy, I don’t give a fuck what I’m sitting on,”

Sasha rolled her eyes and put her hands up in surrender, “See for yourself,”

For a moment there was a tense silent atmosphere in the room as both of the rivals looked at each other with so much animosity, attempting something like compromise was impossible. Even the security in the room was ready to start shooting for each side. Yet they both understood the importance of a compromise.

It was Sasha who first broke the silence and Charlotte was ready for a snarky comment, “So then, I hold the majority of the cards. I take three quarters of the city and you get a quarter, while still being able to continue your business in Massachusetts without any interference from me,”

Charlotte was outraged by the proposition so much so that she started to laugh, “Over my dead body, sure, but if you think for one moment Sasha that I’m gonna start kissing your ass then you’ve got another thing coming to you sweetie,”  


“Fine I expected that, how about you have one third of the city and I take two thirds, which will include the most profitable neighbourhoods, while you can have downtown all to yourself,” Sasha felt this was how far she was willing to go with Charlotte and that was it. Plus, Sasha didn’t really want to deal with the rich society, it was already a strongly established Flair area. 

“No, you are just too big for your boots Sasha. Even if you were to take every profitable poor neighbourhood there are still gangs who are committed towards my industry and won’t want to go to your excuse of a drug company. You know that will start gang war, doesn’t matter who owns the land,”

Sasha had been smirking the entirety of Charlotte’s argument, it was valid but not one that Sasha cared about, “Do you think I care, the only thing that matters is that I own the land and they buy the drugs from me or face the consequences. It’s not my problem if they want to spark a gang war because it’s their own problems that start it. Won’t look bad on me,”

Charlotte’s temper was starting to flare in a rare instant, she already knew playing logical with Sasha wasn’t going to work. What she needed to do was make moves, “You know Sasha I would be very careful about what you say because I have cards that I can pull and I will spark a gang war with you that I will win. We both know that we will also face consequences though and you can say goodbye to any English relations because Paige won’t be able to help. You will come out the worst and I can guarantee that,”

Sasha had kept her eyes on Flair for every moment she got angrier and angrier because she wasn’t about to show weakness at any point, “Have you checked the news recently, I did just after our phone call,”

“Why?” Charlotte wasn’t expecting this and now her entire persona changed.

“The police confirmed who died at the port this morning but I guess you were too busy to look,”

“Who?”

“Grant Hearl. Where’s your cards now bitch,”

Becky had been shaking for the remainder of her wait, thinking even about the prospect of Charlotte being in that warehouse was something she never wanted to go through. However, she knew in her heart Charlotte wouldn’t betray her like that and the Charlotte she knew wouldn’t hurt a fly, never mind keep a military bomb at her disposal. Everything Special Agent Helmsley was saying just didn’t add up to Becky, it couldn’t.

A random Agent walked up to Becky in deep thought, remaining as monotone as possible, “Were moving out in a minute,”  


“Ah t’anks,” Becky knew she was nervous now her strong Irish accent was making a comeback. Before getting in line with everybody else Becky quickly got her phone out and sent a quick text to Charlotte, ‘Call me x’

Hunter was just about ready to commence when he heard a quick shout in his earpiece with a sudden warning voice from his sniper, “Sir there’s a boy running right into the warehouse, security just let him pass. I wasn’t able to get an identity on him sir,”

“Do you mean we need to run right now,”

“Yes sir, security are getting ready,”

“Son of a bitch,”

Hunter instantly got right into combat mode and shouted to his entire squad, “Change of plan, there has been a warning. I want everyone running into position and I want everyone prepared, security is getting ready to shoot. We can’t let our targets escape,”

Without hesitation the FBI team were already in action and Becky and Hunter were trailing behind with their sidearms ready to fire. 

Charlotte was speechless, she hadn’t told anybody about Grant, not even David. How Sasha had found out something as secretive as that was beyond her. Her cards were starting to really fall apart now she knew one of her closest friends was dead. All she could feel now was anger, “So you did kill Grant!”

“No but I knew about your little gun dealer, it was just a coincidence he died today,”

Charlotte started to spit pure venom and removed herself from her seat putting her hands firmly on the table, “You’re a liar. I don’t believe a single word that comes out of your filthy mouth,”

Sasha was contemptuous of sitting down on the chair but now she was ready for a fight, so she lifted herself up from her seat and matched Charlotte’s position getting closer to her face, “I may be a backstabber but the one thing I’m not is a liar. What you see is what you get and I promise you I would be bragging about it right now,”

Charlotte wasn’t able to get another word in as the tension in the air was suddenly cut short by an out breath and disturbed Faris running straight into the warehouse. Sasha immediately showed concern, as Faris collapsed to his knees and was able to shout in between breaths, “FBI are about to invade, right now!”

Sasha looked on with shock in her eyes as gunshots could be heard from outside the warehouse. Instinctively, she ran with two other bodyguards towards her exit but hastily stopped to put out a hand to Faris, he didn’t take it, “I’ll find another way out, I have to deal with something else first, please just get out of her now before they catch you”

Sasha showed genuine concern, “Faris what are you doing,”

“Something, just go,” Any other normal person would have made Faris go with them but at the end of the day it was natural for Sasha to look after her own skin.

“Fine, I trust you get back safe,” 

With that Sasha was already out of the door but in a spineless move, she didn’t entirely think, she slammed the exit door and jammed it with wood. Charlotte was going down and it was what she wanted, “You’re going down bitch!” 

She then got into her escape vehicle, an ambulance with sirens that no one would question.

Charlotte watched with rage as the exit door was slammed shut by Sasha and now there was no escape plan for her. She cursed out multiple words about Sasha as she was fed to the wolves only to help out Sasha. The only other exit was surrounded by the FBI. The best thing she could do now was work with Steve to open up the jammed exit, it was working but only at a slow rate.

The FBI was closer but fortunately the door was getting looser and there was a light at the end of the tunnel for Charlotte’s faith, yet she realised she needed another hand. In the corner of her eye she saw Faris with a gun in hand ready to fight the FBI. She couldn’t believe Sasha, she had also fed her most trusted adviser to the wolves as well.

“Faris, help me!”

Faris watched as Sasha shut the door to the exit and he knew he deserved it, otherwise none of this would have happened in the first place but Charlotte was delusional if she really thought he was going to help her now, “Not a chance in hell!”

“Sasha just stabbed you in the back but you can get out, just help us out please!” Charlotte couldn’t plead anymore as the FBI had kicked in the main entrance.

Bayley had really been enjoying the spectacle so far, it was incredibly entertaining. She had even brought a pack of popcorn with her to watch the show but now was the time her input was needed, everything else had gone to schedule so far and of course Sasha was never going to let Charlotte get away so easily. That was wishful thinking.

A smile widened her face as the SWAT team kicked down the door and each security guard was knocked down like pinball's. Sasha’s security had long gone, which meant Charlotte’s were nothing against the FBI.  


At long last, Bayley’s star player had arrived as Becky burst through the door; over in Charlotte’s end one more push would be needed to loosen the door and Charlotte would be free. Yet that was not how this was going to go down.

Bayley whispered to herself while aiming perfectly at Becky’s upper thigh, “Sometimes in life we have to make difficult decisions Charlotte but you make every wrong decision and that’s why you are going to face justice for a very, very long time,”

A sudden bang echoed in the warehouse and Bayley was already making her exit down the fire escape, knowing full well not to stick around. Everybody fell silent and guns stopped firing knowing full well a sound like that was only capable by a gun much more powerful, Charlotte thought she was about to make her escape with the sudden distraction but everything changed in one second. 

A pain wrenching scream could be heard throughout the warehouse that Charlotte automatically recognised. It was Becky. Becky had been shot. Charlotte had to make a split decision, run now and have freedom or go to the person she loved... Charlotte wasn’t like Sasha, she wouldn’t just leave the person she cared about the most behind, so she chose to turn back and give away her freedom.

Charlotte screamed out in tears, “Becky!”

On adrenaline, Charlotte kicked away from people trying to restrain her and ran straight to the wall where Becky had been propped up on. She slid to the ground immediately making sure that Becky could hear and listen to her, make sure she wasn’t dying. Thankfully, all she saw was a bleeding wound on the leg that wasn’t good but could be dealt with. 

Charlotte was too caught up in the moment that she hadn’t noticed Becky’s hands touch her face but she heard the soft whisper of, “Charlotte,”

Frightened, Charlotte looked up to meet with Becky’s eyes and saw the amount of tears that were coming out of them and a deep pain that was noticeable. Becky couldn’t believe what she was seeing, she trusted Charlotte and now she was here to arrest her. She could only get out one word that Charlotte knew the meaning of, “No,”

It was too late for Charlotte to answer because she felt her entire body be pushed down to the ground and her hands restrained to the back of her handcuffed. The amount of pressure being put on her hurt but she kept her eyes on Becky trying to communicate any type of apology. Becky only held the look of shock and suffering, her emotions still not quite processing everything.

Finally, Agent Helmsley picked Charlotte up from off the floor and started to tell her her rights, “Charlotte Flair you are under arrest for the supply of A-class drugs, conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and the murder of Grant Hearl,”

Charlotte was shocked at her charges, she hadn’t killed Grant and she had never planned any terrorist acts, already she felt something wrong going on. She could see Becky look on disgusted at her but she knew that those charges were wrong and she began to panic.

Hunter carried on reading Charlotte’s rights, “You have the right to the right to remain silent, anything you do say can and will be used against you in a court of law,”

Charlotte knew she was being taken away from Becky out of the building and Becky was getting the help she needed but Charlotte couldn’t let her not know how much she cared about her, “I love you Becky,”

Becky took notice but didn’t have it in her to respond and she watched as Charlotte was taken away.

Hunter carried on as Charlotte listened knowing trouble wouldn’t help, “You have the right to talk to a lawyer and have them present with you while you are being questioned. If you can not afford to hire a lawyer then one will be appointed to represent you before any questioning if you wish,”

Charlotte could hear sirens and flashing blue lights, it was all she could focus on. As long as Becky was okay then she would be okay, “You can decide at any time to exercise these rights and not answer any questions or make any statements,”

Charlotte was now being placed into the back of the van but saw as Becky was rolled out on a stretcher, the two locked eyes but both were going on a completely different journey.

Hunter finished his speech and questioned Charlotte, “Do you understand each of these rights I have explained to you?”

Charlotte looked at the man with no fight left in her, “Yes,”

“Having these rights in mind, do wish to talk to us now?”

“No,” and with that Hunter closed the back of the van and Charlotte’s freedom was gone.

Once Faris heard the shot he knew where it had come from and he knew who had taken the shot. While Charlotte hadn’t taken the exit, Faris ran as fast as he could towards it without the FBI catching him.

Determined, Faris went headstrong towards the staircase but found that there was no sight of Bayley. He found that was impossible though, there was nowhere to run without being spotted and nowhere to hide without being in the same spot but it would only be moments till the FBI tracked where the gunshot had come from. It would be stupid for anyone to remain in the same place.  


Faris could hear the silence and it put him on edge, everywhere he turned, everywhere he looked there was nobody. He moved closer to the staircase, so raised his gun ready to shoot.

Slowly, Faris crept but still felt the silence. One more step and he would be underneath the stairs.

Nothing. There was nothing under the stairs but it still didn’t make sense. Giving up, Faris turned around but right in front of him was Bayley who was too quick for Faris to react. A needle was pressed into his neck and the dose was so strong, Faris automatically fell into Bayley’s arms. Bayley cockily spoke back, “Seriously look behind you, I wasn’t hiding,”

Bayley found that his weight was heavy but she was able to haul him onto her shoulders and took the route away from FBI officers. With the feeling of accomplishment, Bayley placed Faris in the back of her van, the sedative would keep him knocked for a good five hours.

“Us two are going to get to know each other very well but first you’re going to have to spend some time in the chair,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was going to hold off posting this just yet but excitement got the best of me, thanks for reading and feedback is always appreciated.  
> -Tabitha


	12. Aftermath

Ever since Charlotte had been taken out of the small confinements of a blacked out vehicle it was undeniable all eyes were stalking and watching her every move. Just getting out of the van she was greeted by flashing lights and reporters all dying to get any information they could, the atmosphere was hostile and something Charlotte was not prepared for. In fact Charlotte was terrified, she was used to having control over people but now she was stripped of that and the public were free to make whatever opinion they wanted about her. Charlotte didn’t think she was the worst person in the world but she usually always got her own way.

As the rain poured with malicious intent, Charlotte was forced and shoved through reporters and cameras, she was being used as a riot shield. Of course there was nothing she could do about it as her hands were restrained to her back and the FBI SWAT officers had a strong grip on her biceps. It was so strong she was sure the blood circulation had been prevented from going down to her hands that they felt numb. Charlotte didn’t want any of this but her opinion didn’t matter anymore. 

Thankfully, the FBI had her rushed into custody quickly so she didn’t have to have anymore flashing lights blinding her or reporters trying to shove their microphones into her face. Wisely, Charlotte kept her mouth shut not wanting to cause any more of a scene, the press were already half way up her ass, she didn’t need the FBI officers up there and she was being serious. Even as Charlotte entered the tall, monotone building the FBI officers kept their tight grips on her arms, not even giving her the chance to breathe.

Everywhere she looked all she saw was disgusted faces from people who weren’t FBI Agents but receptionists and cleaners, generally normal people. Charlotte hated the idea that the media had reported so quickly on her story that the public already knew everything without her even making a statement or a defence. She didn’t have the chance to tell anybody her side of the story and most people were quick to believe the first thing they are told; the stubbornness of the human mind meant it is a challenge to subvert that belief.

Charlotte kept her head down not wanting to see their disheartened faces. Honestly, Charlotte knew she had to own up to her mistakes but she didn’t want to have to deal with that right now so instead she cowered in fear with her tail tucked between her legs. If anything Charlotte looked pathetic for someone who had so much power. For she could have been a God but now she was a slave.

Finally, Charlotte was pushed (with an extra aggressive force) into her cell and the cuffs that had been welting on Charlotte’s wrists were thankfully taken off. Charlotte observed red marks on her wrists and the touch of air had brought an uncomfortable, burnt feeling that wasn’t going away anytime soon. 

The fully armoured and armed FBI officer looked on at Charlotte with disdain and a clear hate, it made Charlotte feel like a sheep inside. The man could quite literally do anything to her and there was no chance Charlotte could even dodge a hit. Charlotte could usually read people and her immediate thought was that this man wanted to hurt her and she didn’t know why. What had she done that had been so despicable that it made all these people look at her with disgust and hate? Why did she feel more like a serial rapist, than a drug lord?

To his better judgement the officer moved away from Charlotte and followed their orders, “You can call a lawyer in the morning,”

Instinctively, like a hurt prey but against better judgement, Charlotte acted out, “What if I want to call my lawyer now, you can’t keep me in custody forever,”

“You can call in the morning or would you prefer to have no lawyer,” the statement was meant to sound more threatening than serious but Charlotte still kept her mouth shut, the last thing she needed was more trouble.

The officer simply walked out but took pleasure in slamming the cell door shut with great force that it even made Charlotte flinch. Charlotte wanted to wipe that smirk off of his face but in truth there was nothing she could do but sit there and take it. The final nail in her coffin was the sound of the door locking; echoing throughout the room. It signified the start of her ends meet.

Charlotte really didn’t know what to think anymore but there was still one prominent thought taking over her psyche, “Please Becky, just be okay,” it was also something she wouldn't find out in a four sided concrete cube. 

Becky was in shock. It felt like she was being drowned underwater while somebody was pushing her down giving her no way to get up. She was scared and she was so alone. Her leg was bleeding badly and she could feel it soaking her clothes but she couldn’t bring herself to look down to scared what she might find or even faint at the sight of blood. The slow tears streaming down her face was both a mix of physical and mental pain.

It was as if her physical and mental pain was battling each other trying to assert some type of dominance but their battleground was only making everything for her ten times worse. She felt the pit in her stomach constantly flipping and a nausea was making its way to her oesophagus. She didn’t want to be sick already disgusted by the state she was in but the pain was too much.

“Hey Becky, there’s an ambulance here now,” a random coworker had made his way towards her. Becky was still in too much shock to even sense his presence. It was only when he touched her arm did she instinctively cower away like a hurt animal. She could see the concern on his face, however, his full entire gear was on but he still helped Becky up without hesitation and made sure she didn’t fall as she was hauled onto the stretcher.

Becky didn’t say a word and she was pretty sure she was making it worse for everybody else by practically being dead weight and no help to anyone. Everybody looked at her with concern but she really couldn’t care less about them, she just wanted to curl up and sleep. She was tired. Just tired. 

Everything was hard to comprehend but when she saw Charlotte being forced into the detainee van, her gut couldn’t handle it anymore and the bile that had been working it way up her throat released itself. She quickly made sure the sick didn’t cover any part of her so moved her head to the side of the stretcher; her head was left hanging there and she was too tired to lift herself back up. Thankfully, the kind man that had helped her before held her hair back and when he saw that she was nothing more than hanging there, lifted her head back up for her.

It was at that point Becky couldn’t handle it anymore, she felt embarrassed, vulnerable and in so much pain. The tears that had only been slowly streaming down her face, were now full on waterworks and her sobs were loud enough for everybody to hear. Helplessly, she dipped her head down to the bottom of the stretcher and looked up to the sky. There was no way she could look at everybody else, all she would see was pity.

The paramedics lifted Becky onto the ambulance and checked to see if there was anybody who would go with her. They were surprised to find that nobody even knew the officer and the kind man that had helped Becky had only met her today. Nobody knew anything about Becky and Hunter had already set off with Charlotte.

Finally, the ambulance set off with flashing lights. The paramedics weren’t so concerned about Becky that they thought she needed to be seen in an emergency but they still wanted her to be seen urgently to stop the bleeding and check there was no internal bleeding. The paramedics were relatively positive Becky was stable and her heart rate proved that, however, they were sure that she was in some type of shock.

Becky didn’t look at the paramedics either, even as they were taking her vitals. She just couldn’t. It was almost like she was paralysed. Much to her dismay, the paramedics started to ask her questions she didn’t want to answer, “Can you tell me your name please,”

It took her awhile but she went with it, “Becky Quinn Lynch,”

“How old are you Becky,”

“Thirty three,” A sudden sharp pain stabbed itself right into her leg, which caught her off guard and let a loud groan escape her mouth. The sound was met with a quicker beeping in the heart rate monitor, that had made the paramedic react incredibly quicker.

Becky felt both tingles and burning in her affected leg, she couldn’t see what the paramedic was doing but she noticed an even more concerned face on them. Her head was spinning but the two paramedics were talking to each trying to make some sort of judgement. It was only a minute later the paramedic had picked up the red phone, but Becky could only hear a some words, as there too much ringing in her ears to focus, “Emergency,” “Bullet,” “Nerve,”

“Hey, hey, Becky, I need you to stay awake for me,” the paramedic lightly touched Becky's shoulders making sure that she wasn’t trying to close her eyes at all. Becky had to admit she felt extremely tired and hadn’t even noticed her eyes begin to droop, being in such a fast moving ambulance hadn’t even made her want to stay awake. 

Becky was sure an injection had been inserted into her but she barely felt it, too focused on how much pain her leg was in, the paramedic soothingly talked to Becky, “Just stay awake Becky, one minute to go,”

A migraine was beginning to get worse for Sasha as she entered her office and sat herself onto her executive chair putting her feet up for good measure. So much had happened in the past hours, everything was hard to comprehend. Yet the one dominant driving force for Sasha combating that migraine. Charlotte Flair was gone, for all she knew dead.

In one swift movement she looked down at the floor but as she brought her head back up she started to laugh. She was so goddamn happy she really didn’t care about anything else right now. She just kept laughing, so much so she was crying with laughter and before she knew it, she pressed the call button on her office telephone, connecting her to her secretary, “Tegan send a bottle of champagne up, tonight is a celebration,”

Sasha held a grin on her face so wide, the city lights were no match for her. The evening night was beautiful and Sasha was damn sure that she was having a party and maybe heading off to the bars around the city. She had won and she was sure that the message would be spread across the city as fast as it could.

Tegan Nox, her secretary, walked through the door. Sasha had given her the job and kept her away from the illegal sides of her business, just like a lot of her staff and instead allowing other people to inform her of illegal business. Tegan was more responsible for her proper business. Sasha did own a proper company and was the CEO of it but it was small, compared to other business’ and still relatively new in the business world. 

Sasha had a 1:1 Computer Science with Business Studies degree (finishing top of her class) and had come into the inheritance of the company from her friend while in college. The two planned to work on the company together but couldn’t due to unforeseen circumstances. Her company was focused on IT security for business’ which helped a considerate amount when she needed information for her prime business. She moved to Boston setting up a proper headquarters, registered it as Judeware Security and her business had become a premature success, it also helped that she could pump money into it through her million dollar drug sales.

Sasha was elevated and Tegan was confused, it wasn’t like the IT company had any major success’ as of recently. Tegan had worked in the company for around two months but had no intention of staying in the job, she was there simply for her paycheck, however, she had noticed that her boss could sometimes act really weird. Just last week she’d accidentally walked in on a heavily armed security man making a contract with Sasha. It was weird.

Tegan hadn’t really made friends with any of her coworkers as they wouldn’t tell her anything (she didn’t know anything about computers) and her only other friends were people who were cleaners or someone who had nothing to do with the overall business. However, Tegan wasn’t exactly a detective so she didn’t really care to go beyond nothing more than scepticism, as far as she was concerned Sasha’s business was a success, so she would get paid.

Sasha was in so much of a bliss, she rushed straight over to Tegan, who held the bottle in her hands, “Oh I’m so happy I could kiss you,” Sasha, without fully thinking, reached out her hands to Tegan’s face and pushed her lips to Tegan’s lips in a forced kiss that Tegan immediately tried to back away from. Her eyes going completely wide and reinforcing the thought in her head her boss was weird. Luckily, Sasha backed away extremely fast, realising her mistake.

“Ah sorry,” Sasha cringed, feeling a little bit embarrassed. Tegan didn’t really do anything about it but made sure to slowly walk away, “I’m just gonna… go. Shifts finished now,”

Sasha cringed again, “Yeah see you tomorrow,”

While one person was walking out the door, Sasha was about to crack open her bottle, until a less pleasant surprise walked through her door. Without knocking as well. Sasha sighed and rolled her eyes but welcomed her guest nonetheless, “What’s up Paige. Don’t tell me England’s lost all interest right now,”

Paige was pretty shocked at how Sasha was acting towards her, in fact she should have been elated. She held incredibly good news but apparently, she was here to ruin the night, “Actually Sasha I’m here to tell you to turn on the goddamn news firstly,”

With a keen interest Sasha turned her chair around to look at her screen and clicked the button on her remote. The first image she was met by were reporters all flashing cameras into Charlotte’s face while being taken out of an FBI van and already her smirk was growing wide, while her hands subconsciously met with each other, so only the fingers were touching.

Still the best thing Sasha’s eyes met was the news line at the bottom, “BREAKING NEWS: CHARLOTTE FLAIR ARRESTED ON TERRORIST CHARGES,” The news line was so good Sasha spat out her drink as she went to sip it. Supplying drugs was one thing but terrorist charges, she was going to be public enemy number one. Immediately Sasha started to laugh all over again.

Paige could see the insane amount of joy in Sasha just watching the news going on all about Charlotte but she still needed Sasha’s attention and that wasn’t going to happen with Charlotte’s demise all over the screen. Paige wandered over to Sasha’s table and swiftly swiped the remote, quickly pressing the power button so Sasha was left with a black screen.

All too soon Paige was met with the backlash, “Hey, I’m watching that! How would you like it if I turned your arch enemies' demise off the screen!”

“You can watch that later but I’m here to tell you that Pete’s cartel wants to start doing business now that Charlotte's gone. It’s the opening we need,”  
Sasha looked on in shock, she really thought she’d fucked herself over with England but now everything was working like well oiled cogs. Once she’d made business in England it was then she could expand over to other European countries and she was especially excited, “Well then,”

“Yep but something else, you’ve been invited to a gala, with you know who the organiser,”

Sasha sighed, “Hate that man but this gala could be a good opportunity to make some other connections,”

“One final thing, Faris wasn’t arrested by the FBI. Just wondering where he is,”

A sharp pain was felt in Sasha’s gut but she held a game face. It wasn’t her fault Faris was left behind; he did that to himself and locking the door on Charlotte was her only option otherwise she could have been caught. It seemed she was right though, Faris got himself out but where the hell was he. The first thing he would do was come right back to Sasha and maybe they’d have a drink to celebrate but he wasn’t here, “I don’t know, maybe he went back to the house, it doesn’t really concern me, he can handle himself…”

Faris shivered, the room he was in was freezing but he couldn’t possibly tell where he was as his view had been obscured by a black bag on his head, when he had woken up with a pain wrenching headache. There was nothing he could possibly do though as both his hands and legs had been restrained to the chair by an irritable rope. Fortunately, Faris knew it was Bayley who had kidnapped him and although there was nothing he could do now, the anger in his head was plotting some type of revenge.

All Faris could hang onto was the prominent feeling of anger as he was both angry at himself for even letting himself get into this situation in the first place and angry at his kidnapper. The truth was he had no idea what Bayley had planned for him, he had no idea whether the kidnapping was premeditated or thought of on the spot in an attempt to make sure Sasha didn’t find out about her.

Yet, surely by Bayley’s standards Faris would be dead if that was the case for the second part. There would be no need for the hassle of a kidnapping for him not to tell Sasha. 

Bayley had been watching Faris in the corner of the small supply cabinet she’d fashioned to be a small, soundless, ‘kidnapping’ area. Some would say a torture room but it wasn’t like she was about to chop the boy’s arm off. Faris was simply bait for Sasha so there was no reason she needed to hurt Faris at all.

However, there was certain art for kidnapping that Bayley had learned over the years, after all she didn’t want any of her ‘victims’ to try to escape. If a certain psychologically was felt at first and carried on throughout their stay then they wouldn’t try to escape in the first place. All she needed was Faris to remain calm but at the same time so scared he wouldn’t try to escape.

To most people that seemed hard to achieve but it could easily be achieved by a more patient, passive method instead of a more aggressive one. Shouting into somebody's face to cause fear would only cause panic. This was why Bayley’s first step was always introducing her ‘victim’ to a blacked out view for however long she thought was necessary, that way they could collect their thoughts and calm down. In extreme cases this could take a week.

It was only then Bayley would introduce herself and there would be none of the shouting business, just a calm explanation to why they were there but also making sure that small details of guns and knives on her were observed. In most cases Bayley preferred collecting her information through psychological methods, in line with her psychology education then using classic torture methods. As well most people tell the truth through psychological methods and people in pain say anything to stop the pain.

Bayley has to act more like a lifeline to her ‘victim’ over a tormentor, they need to truly believe Bayley will let them go once she’s finished with them, even if that may not be the case. Using these methods Bayley had only really ever needed to cause physical pain to half a dozen of her ‘victims’ and only because they were majorly aggressive.

It interested Bayley that Faris hadn’t said a word, hadn’t tried to scream for help. Just staying in the chair, it made Bayley a lot happier as she wouldn’t have to be so patient with Faris. In fact she was ready in just half an hour since he woke to reintroduce herself.

Bayley slowly walked towards Faris not making a single sound or indication she was there. Then with a gentle motion pulled the bag off of Faris’ head. She still made no word and allowed Faris to get used to the bright lights in the room that would temporarily blind his vision. Lastly, Bayley made a reasonable amount of distance between the two and lowered herself down to the cold concrete floor and moved to cross her legs.

She made no expression but stared at Faris in a threatening but non-threatening way. She didn’t want to indicate she was going to cause pain but wanted to assert some type of dominance. Faris only looked back at her staring daggers, yet neither of them said a word. Bayley wasn’t going to speak first and would wait all day for Faris to say something.

Faris knew what Bayley was doing and it made him sick to the stomach, he knew that his patience wouldn’t last as long as hers. In fact the entire scenario was making Faris sick, Bayley was just sitting there, he wasn’t sure if he would prefer being physically hurt over Bayley acting like a creep. 

“Can I have a drink, my head hurts,” Instead of acting like a caged animal, Faris would prefer to show no sign of fear.  


“Depends would you try to spit it in my face,”

“Maybe,”

“Then I think you know my answer,”

Faris tried his hardest to act nonchalant but he could feel the anger in himself starting to bubble up, so much so he wanted to strangle the woman in front of him. Bitterly he spat out, “Are you going to kill me,”

Bayley sighed and shrugged her shoulders in a bored manner, “Maybe but as far as you're concerned I have no reason to kill you. You see I can compare you to fishing. When you fish you use bait and that bait could be a live worm, which is you. If that worm is alive then it’s going to be a much more tastier treat for the fish and there's a higher chance of catching that fish. So in this instance Sasha is the fish.

At the end of the day I really don’t care about the bait but I care that the bait is as efficient as it can be. So I want to keep you alive and I’d rather you let me. If you were to end up at the bottom of the lake it’s nothing more than your own fault. Now I have to get going, got a lovely night planned binge watching trash television,”

Before Bayley could place the bag back onto Faris’ head he rushed to get a final word out, “Wait!”

Bayley only stopped for a moment, kindly letting him get what he wanted to say out. Faris didn’t hesitate to stumble out, “Please don’t kill Sasha,”

Bayley frowned but replied, while placing the bag back onto Faris’ head, “Who said I wanted to kill Sasha,”


End file.
